Turkey expects over 226M annual air passengers by 2019

By Bahattin Gonultas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey expects to welcome over 226 million air passengers annually by 2019, up 30 percent over last year, according to official revised figures released Monday.

The 174 million passengers Turkey welcomed in 2016, including direct transit passengers, is expected to rise 8.4 percent to reach 188.6 million at the end of the year, said the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI).

That figure is expected to climb to some 205 million in 2018 and 226.6 million in 2019, according to directorate figures.

The largest increase is expected to be in the number of international passengers, rising 41 percent from 71 million last year to over 100 million in 2019.

The number of domestic air passengers is also expected to rise 22.8 percent to reach 126.1 million in the next three years.

The authority expects airplane traffic including overflights to rise to 1.95 million by the end of the year from 1.829 million flights in 2016, increasing to 2.13 million in 2018 and 2.3 million in 2019.

Air cargo traffic in the country is also expected to rise to over 4 million tons in 2019 from around 2.9 million tons in 2016, according to the authority.