Turkey's airports serve nearly 36.5M passengers in H1

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The number of air passengers -- including transit passengers -- in Turkey totaled 36.48 million in the first half of this year, the country's airport authority announced Tuesday.

The month's figure was down from 94.9 million passengers in the same period last year -- due to travel restrictions to stem the virus's spread -- the General Directorate of the State Airports Authority (DHMI) data showed.

The number of international passengers was 14.55 million in the six-month period.

Some 21.9 million domestic passengers traveled through Turkish airports in the same period.

The Turkish airports served for 464,297 planes -- including overflights -- in January-June period.

The DHMI data showed that cargo traffic was 1.03 million tons in the same period, compared to the previous period.

The new Istanbul Airport served for 12.9 million passengers and 96,253 planes during the first six months.

In June, the country served for 2.75 million passengers, 55,814 aircraft, and 89,248 tons of mail and cargo.

The novel coronavirus, appeared in the last December in China firstly, had severe effects on the economic activities, especially in the tourism and aviation sectors.