Turkish Airlines served over 75 million passengers in 2018

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s national flag carrier carried 75.2 million passengers last year, the company has announced.

On a yearly basis, the total number of passengers carried by Turkish Airlines surged 10 percent in 2018.

Last year, the airline’s seat occupancy rate - passenger load factor - reached 82 percent, improving 3 percentage points year-on-year.

The number of domestic and international passengers rose by 9.4 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively.

“Excluding international-to-international transfer passengers [transit passengers], the number of international passengers went up significantly by 12 percent,” the airline said in a filing with Borsa Istanbul.

“When compared to 2017, cargo/mail carried during the year 2018 increased by 25 percent, reaching 1.4 million tons,” it added. 

In December alone, the number of passengers the airline served increased by 0.7 percent from a year earlier to hit 5.5 million.

Domestic passengers declined by 4.5 percent on an annual basis to 2.37 million while international passengers increased by 5 percent to 3.15 million.

Turkish Airlines, founded in 1933, flies to 306 destinations in 124 countries with its fleet of 332 aircraft including passenger and cargo planes.