Turkish airports serve 26.8M passengers in 2 months

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey saw 26.8 million air passengers in the first two months of 2019, according to state airport officials.

The number of passengers dropped 3.7 percent in January-February versus the same period in 2018, according to the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI).

In the first two months, international passengers made up 39.6 percent (10.6 million) of total passengers.

Among 56 airports nationwide, Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, on the European side of the city, was the most active, with 9.8 million passengers.

Serving 5.23 million passengers, Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen Airport on the city's Anatolian side was the second-busiest airport in Turkey over the last two months.

In the same period, other active airports were the ones in the capital Ankara (2.3 million), the Aegean province of Izmir (1.8 million), and the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya (1.7 million).

Official figures also showed that Istanbul Airport, whose first phase officially opened on Oct. 29, welcomed nearly over 202,000 passengers over the first two months of 2019.

At a full annual capacity of 200 million passengers -- with the completion of all four phases with six runways by 2028 -- Istanbul Airport is set to become a global aviation hub hosting more than 100 airlines and flights to over 300 destinations around the world.

While the country's airports hosted nearly 202,000 planes, Turkish airspace was used by 272,667 planes -- including overflights -- in the same period.

Turkish airports also served over 523,000 tons of air cargo -- baggage, cargo and mail -- in the two-month period, up 4.9 percent from the same period in 2018.

Last year, Turkish airports hosted some 210 million passengers, while the number of planes using Turkish airspace was over 2 million, including overflights.