Turkey's airports serve 76.8M passengers in Jan-Nov

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The number of air passengers in Turkey -- including transit passengers -- totaled 76.77 million from January until the end of November, the country's airport authority announced Monday.

The figure was around 196 million in the same period last year, with the decrease largely stemming from travel restrictions to stem the virus's spread, the General Directorate of the State Airports Authority (DHMI) data showed.

International passengers numbered roughly 30.06 million during the 11-month period, while around 46.7 million domestic passengers traveled through Turkish airports in the same period.

Airports in the country served 979,959 planes -- including overflights -- with cargo traffic registering at around 2.2 million tons, according to the DHMI figures.

The new Istanbul Airport served 21.7 million passengers and 170,699 planes during this period.

In November alone, Turkey served 6.13 million passengers, 86,600 aircraft, and 219,748 tons of mail and cargo.

The novel coronavirus, which first appeared in December 2019 in China, had severe effects on economic activities, especially tourism and aviation.