December 2016 Turkey Airports Aircraft and Passenger Numbers

Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communications Ahmet Arslan said that, despite all the negative developments such as the treacherous coup attempt on July 15 last year and the chaos in the Middle East, the number of passengers carried by air was 174 million.

In his statement to the AA correspondent, Minister Arslan stated that they had carried out the greatest leaps in the history of the Republic over the past 14 years, and that with the investments made, Turkey was one of the fastest-growing countries, especially in the field of aviation.

Noting that during this period the number of airports more than doubled from 26 to 55, Arslan said, "Millions of our people who had never boarded a plane have now become able to make almost all of their travel by air. Thanks to this, our total number of passengers, which was 34 million in 2003, rose to 182 million last year. In 2016, however, despite all the negative developments such as the treacherous coup attempt on July 15 and the chaos in the Middle East, the number of passengers carried by air was 174 million."

"12 MILLION PASSENGERS USED AIR TRANSPORT IN DECEMBER"

Stating that the number of passengers using airlines in December of last year was 12 million 84 thousand, Arslan reported that 7 million 733 thousand 239 of these consisted of domestic line passengers and 4 million 330 thousand 128 of international line passengers.

Pointing out that the total aircraft traffic at airports in that month was 67 thousand 872 on domestic lines, a 2% increase compared to the same month of the previous year, and 36 thousand 122 on international lines, a 7% decrease, Arslan made the following assessment: "The upward trend in overflight traffic continued due to the unavailability of all or a certain part of the airspaces of neighboring countries. In December of last year, overflight traffic was 30 thousand 884, a 21.3% increase compared to the same month of the previous year. At the end of the year, overflight traffic reached 376 thousand 928, a 5.2% increase."

"AIR CARGO TRAFFIC INCREASED BY 4.8% IN DECEMBER"

Reporting that the cargo, mail and baggage traffic carried at airports reached 225 thousand 704 tons in December, Minister Arslan said, "As of December, our airport cargo traffic was 56 thousand 182 tons on domestic lines, a 5.2% decrease, and 169 thousand 522 tons on international lines, an 8.6% increase. Thus, the December total reached 225 thousand 704 tons, a 4.8% increase. The total cargo traffic for 2016 was 2 million 942 thousand 784, a 4.2% decrease compared to the previous year."

  Click to download the December 2016 year-end data.