Some 52.29 million people, including transit passengers, traveled using Turkey's airports in January-August, according to a national aviation group.

The eight-month figure decreased 62.9% versus the same period last year, the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) said Saturday.

The drop stemmed from global coronavirus-related measures that hit several sectors hard, especially travel, aviation, tourism and manufacturing.

Domestic passenger numbers shrank 52.3% to 32.27 million, while 19.98 million took international flights, down 72.5%, during the same period.

Turkish airports served 672,408 planes, including overflights, in the first eight months of this year, down from 1.36 million.

The report also said cargo traffic stood at 1.47 million tons in the first eight months of 2020, compared with 2.7 million tons on a yearly basis.

In August alone, local airports served 115,913 planes, of which 69,389 were domestic flights and 32,041 were international, the data also showed.

A total of 5.7 million domestic flight passengers used Turkish airports in August, while the number of international travelers was 3.8 million.

Freight traffic, which includes cargo, mail and baggage, in August reached a total of 240,246 tons, 65,274 tons on domestic flights with 174,972 tons more on international.