Turkey became the second biggest contributor to European local traffic growth as it added 134 daily flights in December 2017, according to the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol).
During the same period, Turkish Airlines (THY) ranked second in Europe with 1,214 flights every day. It was also second in terms of adding the most flights to the network on a daily basis with 116 flights.
The announcement was made on the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM) website, where it cited the Eurocontrol's latest Network Operations Report.
According to the report, air traffic in Europe increased by 1.9 percent in December 2017 compared to the previous month.
Among European airports, Istanbul's Atatürk Airport was the fourth busiest with more 595 daily departures in December.
In terms of the total traffic, Ryanair ranked first with 1,683 daily flights.
THY's monthly traffic, on the other hand, reached 1,214 in December as it grew by 10.6 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Turkey's Pegasus Airlines also ranked 13th in the Top 50 list with an average of 429 flights a day.
Meanwhile, delays experienced in flight traffic around Europe declined by 22.3 percent compared to the same period of 2016, while delay increases in Atatürk Airport were caused by adverse weather conditions and airport capacity. The announcement on the SHGM website also addressed the Airports Council International Europe's (ACI EUROPE) December 2017 and year-end data. Accordingly, Atatürk Airport saw the number of passengers increase by 15.9 percent in December, becoming the fastest growing airport in Europe.
By the end of the year 2017, the number of passengers at Atatürk Airport increased by 5.9 percent compared to the previous year, reaching 63.9 million, making it Europe's fifth largest airport. Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport also achieved a record growth of 105.2 percent, serving more than 25 million passengers last year. Ankara's Esenboğa Airport ranked saw a 20.6 percent increase in the number of passengers.