Turkey's domestic air passenger traffic up 18.3 percent in February

The number of passengers taking domestic flights in Turkey grew 18.3 percent this February compared to the same month of last year, the General Directorate of the State Airports Authority said in a statement on Saturday.

The number of passengers on international flights grew 7.4 percent in the period.

The total number of domestic passengers for the month was 7.56 million. The number of international passengers reached almost 4.13 million, the authority said.

The number of domestic flights rose 21.5 percent to 63,438. The number of international flights grew 14.1 percent to 36,501.

Turkish airports served 124,192 planes in February 2016, a rise of 15 percent compared with the same month a year earlier, including the number of overflights.

The amount of air cargo in the second month of the year grew 8.4 percent in domestic flights and 15.2 percent in international flights to nearly 198,000 tons.

Istanbul's Ataturk Airport, Sabiha Gökçen Airport, Ankara Esenboğa, and Izmir Adnan Menderes remain Turkey's busiest airports, serving a total of 8.4 million passengers in the month, 72 percent of the country's total passengers.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers taking domestic flights in Turkey grew 14.1 percent in 2015 from the previous year. Passengers on international flights grew 4.4 percent in the period. The total number of domestic passengers for last year was 97 million, and there were 84 million international passengers, according to the country's airports authority.