The number of foreign passengers arriving and departing from the Trabzon Airport to the eastern Black Sea Region increased by 114 percent compared to the previous year.

With an annual capacity of 3.5 million passengers including domestic and international customers, the Trabzon Airport has the terminal capacity to park 14 large aircraft simultaneously.

Declared as a temporary border gate in 1988, the airport provides 24-hour service to domestic and foreign airline companies on scheduled, unscheduled, domestic and international flights. Direct flights to certain countries; especially Germany, depart from the international terminal.

According to statistics from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI), the number of flights between January and April of 2016 at the airport - 7,870 - increased to 8,166 in the same period of this year, marking a 5 percent increase.

Flights from the eastern Black Sea region to Trabzon, a route which is gaining an increasing amount of interest from Arab tourists each year, are increasing the number of passengers using the airway.

The number of foreign passengers landing in the city of Trabzon reached a new record compared to the first four months of the previous year, with an increase of 114 percent from 8,150 passengers to 17,411.

Trabzon Airport served about 1 million passengers in the first four months of 2016 and was the preferred airport of more than 1.1 million people so far this year.

Having seen a noteworthy increase in the number of passengers, the Trabzon Airport also experienced an increase in commercial aircraft traffic and freight transportation. The number of international commercial flights, which stood at 83 in the same period of last year, reached 128 this year.

Meanwhile, 189 tons of freight transport including luggage, cargo and mail, increased by 108 percent to 399 tons in comparison to the previous year.