Istanbul Airport was the busiest civil aviation hub in Europe in January, according to a report by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation on Monday.
Türkiye's largest airport, and one of the biggest in the world, saw an average of 1,308 flights per day last month, Eurocontrol said.
Istanbul Airport was followed by London Heathrow with 1,202 daily flights, while Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris Charles De Gaulle ranked third and fourth with 1,160 and 1,032 flights per day, the data showed.
Sabiha Gökçen, Türkiye's second biggest airport, came in 10th with 596 flights on average.
An average of 1,375 flights per day in 2023 granted Istanbul Airport the title of Europe's busiest for a fourth consecutive year, according to Eurocontrol.
The airport served around 76 million passengers last year, up from around 52.75 million in 2019. It looks to increase the count to 85 million throughout 2024, its operator, IGA, said earlier this month.
Istanbul Airport was officially opened in late October 2018 before becoming fully operational in April 2019.
The gleaming glass-and-steel structure along the Black Sea coast has managed to turn into one of the most important transit centers in aviation ever since.
The hub can handle 90 million passengers a year in the current phase. The figure is nothing compared to its potential capacity to serve 200 million after completing all phases.
All four phases of the airport's construction and expansion, including six runways, are expected to be completed by 2028.
Last week, officials announced plans to install a system at Istanbul Airport enabling three aircraft to land and take off independently, marking the first in Europe.
Trainings are planned to start next month before trials begin later this year. The airport's third runway was inaugurated in June 2020.
Istanbul Airport connects to 315 destinations worldwide via over 100 international carriers.
In 2023, it had its highest-ever number of aircraft takeoffs and landings in a single year – 505,968. That compares to 329,876 in 2019 and is planned to be lifted to nearly 540,000 this year.
