The number of passengers flying between Istanbul and London has increased significantly last year thanks to the rise in the number of daily scheduled flights between the two capitals. Passenger traffic between another U.K. city, Manchester, and four cities in Turkey, namely Turkey's holiday resorts Muğla, Antalya, İzmir and Istanbul, also saw a major increase.
The number of daily flights between Istanbul and London has increased to 15, and there are currently 10 flights from Atatürk International Airport, four from Sabiha Gökçen, located in Istanbul's Asian side, and one from the new Istanbul Airport flying to three airports in the U.K.'s capital, namely Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
The number of passengers flying from two Istanbul airports, Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen, to London has reached 1.848 million in 2018, a report in Turkish daily Habertürk said yesterday.
National flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) and Pegasus Airlines have carried the highest number of passengers to London. The number of transit passengers traveling between London and Istanbul has also saw a major increase, especially thanks to Istanbul connection flights to many locations around the world. Passengers between Iran, Iraq and India and London with Istanbul connecting flights have also jumped, according to the report.
The number of passengers flying between Heathrow Airport, Atatürk Airport and Sabiha Gökçen stood at 1.074 million and 151, respectively, in 2018. The same figure between Gatwick and the two Istanbul airports hit 228,777 and 81,237, respectively. Passengers traveling between the U.K.'s Stansted Airport and Atatürk and Sabiha Gökç
en airports reached 90,543 and 373,221, respectively.
The number of passengers on scheduled and unscheduled flights between Manchester and Muğla, Antalya, İzmir and Istanbul hit around 1.045 million last year. Some 676, 025 passengers traveled on flights between Manchester and Turkey's holiday resorts Antalya and Muğla alone. The number of passengers between Manchester and Antalya, Bodrum, Dalaman, Istanbul and İzmir totaled 321,923, 72,176, 354,102, 247,589 and 49,760, respectively, in 2018. a