Turkish Airlines passenger numbers rise 7.5 percent so far in 2017 to 57.8 million

ISTANBUL

The total number of passengers carried by Turkish Airlines (THY) rose by 7.5 percent between January and October, compared to the same period last year, the airline stated on Nov. 13.

During the January-October period, the company carried 57.8 million passengers, up from 53.8 million passengers in the same period of 2016, according to a company statement to the Public Disclosure Platform.

The increase in the number of passengers carried in Turkish Airlines domestic and international lines were 8.3 percent and 6.9 percent respectively.

The load factor also increased by 4.5 percentage points, up to 79 percent in the mentioned period.

In October, the airline carried 6.2 million passengers, indicating a year-on-year rise of 12.7 percent.

There was an increase of 13 percent in the number of passengers carried in domestic lines and an increase of 12.4 percent in international lines in October.

The total load factor increased by 6.3 percentage points to 81 percent, while the International L/F increased by 6.6 percentage points, according to the statement.

The rise in the number of passengers carried was 37.7 percent in South and Central America, 12.6 percent in domestic lines, 12.6 percent in the Middle East, 10.3 percent in the Far East, 10.1 percent in Africa, 8.8 percent in Europe and 5.4 percent in North America.

However, Turkish Airlines also stated that by the end of October 2017 the number of its aircrafts had fallen to 329, down from 334 in October 2016.

While the number of wide body aircrafts increased from 86 to 90, the number of narrow body aircrafts decreased from 237 to 223. The number of cargo aircrafts went up to 16 from 11, according to the statement.