Turkish airports host 26.2M passengers in Jan, Feb 2020

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey welcomed 26.2 million air passengers in January and February 2020, the state airport authority announced Friday.

The figure was down by 2.2% from the same period last year, the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) said in a statement.

International passengers made up 44% of total passengers in the first two months of this year.

The airports saw 11.5 million air passengers on international routes, rising 8.5% year-on-year.

The number of passengers taking domestic routes, meanwhile, hit 14.7 million.

While the country's airports served nearly 212,600 planes, Turkish airspace was used by 278,670 planes -- including overflights -- in the two-month period.

The report revealed that cargo traffic -- baggage, cargo and mail -- saw a rise of 3% on an annual basis to 537,943 tons from January to February.

The new Istanbul Airport -- whose first phase officially opened in October 2018 and took over air traffic from Ataturk Airport on April 6, 2019 -- welcomed 9.9 million passengers on both international and domestic routes and served over 66,649 airplanes.