Istanbul is leading the way with Turkey’s increase in air traffic, as it receives half of the country’s air passengers each year. Visitors arriving at Turkey’s airports increased 11 percent in 2017, with Turkey’s leading airports serving 192 million passengers.
Last year Ataturk Airport served over 63 million passengers, a 6 percent increase over 2016, that then added to the numbers of Sabiha Gokcen Airport results in the two airports handling 95 million passengers in 2017, that is a 120 percent rise from 2010.
Turkey’s aviation market has increased an incredible amount and when all figures are put into perspective there are now more arrivals in the first quater of an average year than there were back in the year 2000.
If the increase in rate continues throughout the 2018, the final total could top 230 million travellers and this figure will be aided by the opening of the new airport in Istanbul in October this year.
Antalya airport is experiencing a growth in air traffic as numbers increased by 38 percent last year to a total of 26 million passengers.
Turkish Airlines has maintained the top spot as Turkey’s largest air carrier with the airline having a reported 60 million departing seats from Turkey last year, up 3.6 percent on the preceding year.
Pegasus is the second largest airline and has been reported in having a 5.9 percent rise in departing seats.
Last year Qatar Airways increased its seat capacity to Turkey by 0.7 percent and is expected to improve on this this year as Qatar has decided to expand its flights into new areas around Turkey.
Source: Hurriyet News
