The number of passengers passing through Turkish airports reached 182.7 million in the January-October period, the country's airport authority said yesterday.

Passenger traffic rose 10.8 percent in the first 10 months of 2018, up from 164.8 million in the same period of 2017, according to the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ).

During the Jan.-Oct. period Turkish airports served 1.73 million planes, including overflights. The total amount of air cargo in the same period was 3.26 million tons, the DHMİ said.

In October, the number of passengers was 18.7 million, while the number of planes using Turkish airports was nearly 180,000.

In the same month, the number of international passengers was 9.5 million and domestic passengers 9.2 million.

Istanbul's Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen airports contributed considerably to October figures with nearly 6 million and 2.9 million passengers, respectively.

The country's air traffic rose 8.4 percent, while Europe's air traffic increment was 3.6 percent from April 1 to Sep. 30, Turkey's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (SHGM) announced on Tuesday.

It also said Turkey has become the biggest contributor to European air traffic.

The SHGM noted that according to a European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) report, delays in air traffic flow management in Turkey was 79 percent in 2017's second and third quarter, dropping by 47.3 percent in the same period this year.

The percentage of delayed flights - delayed by more than 15 minutes - in Istanbul's Atatürk

Airport was 25 percent and 21 percent in Istanbul's Sabiha Gökçen Airport, in the same period.