Two major airports situated in Türkiye's economic and cultural hub, Istanbul, served over 100 million passengers in the first 10 months of the year, marking an increase of 7% compared to the same period last year, according to a report on Saturday.
During January-October, Istanbul's two airports, namely Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport, served 101.98 million passengers, a report by Anadolu Agency (AA) said.
Like this, the number of passengers hosted at Istanbul and Sabiha Gökçen airports continued to rise in the 10th month of the year as well. The increase in passenger numbers is also positively reflected in the financial results of airline companies.
According to information compiled by AA from the website of the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI), around 67.5 million passengers traveled through Istanbul Airport during the January-October period of this year.
Of these passengers, 14.7 million were on domestic flights, while over 52.8 million were on international routes.
In comparison, in the January-October 2023 period, a total of 64.3 million passengers traveled through Istanbul Airport –15.4 million on domestic flights and nearly 49 million on international flights.
Accordingly, the country's largest air hub has seen a surge of over 3 million passengers compared to the same period last year, or approximately a 5% year-over-year increase. While the number of domestic passengers decreased by 4%, the number of international passengers rose by 8% compared to last year.
On the other hand, Sabiha Gökçen Airport, on the city's Asian side, served nearly 34.5 million passengers in the first 10 months of the year, of which around 16.4 million were domestic-bound and around 18.1 million on international routes.
Last year, in the same period, the airport welcomed around 30.75 million passengers in total. Like this, an increase of around 12% was observed in passenger traffic on an annual basis.
The figures on arrivals at Atatürk Airport, which was largely decommissioned following the construction of the mega Istanbul Airport, were not included in the statistics.
Moreover, recent data from the European aviation agency Eurocontrol suggested Istanbul Airport once again carried the title of the busiest airport in Europe, with an average of 1,318 daily flights in the period covering 18-24 Nov.
