Turkish air passenger traffic up 4 pct in 2016 so far

ANKARA (AA) - The number of passengers taking international and domestic flights in Turkey rose 4 percent to reach 66 million in the first five months of the year compared to the same period last year, according to official figures.

But the number of passengers on international flights fell 6.2 percent to 25.1 million in the same period, the General Directorate of State Airports Authority said in a statement Tuesday.

The total number of domestic passengers for May was 9.29 million. The number of international passengers totaled almost 6.35 million, the authority added.

Turkish airports served nearly 700,000 planes during January-May 2016, a rise of 5.3 percent compared with the same period last year, including the number of overflights.

The amount of air cargo in the first five months of the year fell 0.7 percent to some 1.083 million tons.