140M passengers use Turkish airports in Jan-Aug

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Turkey saw around 140 million air passengers on both domestic and international flights in January-August this year, the airport authority said on Thursday.

In the eight-month period, the number of passengers passing through Turkish airports rose by 12.7 percent on a yearly basis, according to the General Directorate of State Airports Authority.

Some 45.7 percent of the total passengers travelled on international flights.

Among over 50 airports in the country, Istanbul's Ataturk Airport was the busiest airport with 45.6 million passengers in the same period -- some 13 million passengers on domestic flights and nearly 32.5 million passengers on international flights.

Istanbul's Sabiha Gokcen Airport located on the city's Anatolian side was the second most active airport with around 23 million passengers -- showing an annual hike of 11 percent.

Istanbul's airports were followed by the airports in the Mediterranean holiday resort city of Antalya, the capital Ankara, and the Aegean province of Izmir.

Official data also showed that total aircraft traffic -- including overflights -- in Turkish airspace increased by 7.3 percent to reach 1.36 million flights this January to August.