Turkiye’s airports served nearly 39 million passengers in the January-March period, up by 31.7 percent in the same period of 2022, data from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ) have shown.
International passenger traffic grew by a strong 48.3 percent in the first quarter of 2023 from a year ago to 20.2 million, while domestic passengers increased by nearly 18 percent year-on-year to 18.8 million.
Istanbul Airport saw a robust 45 percent annual increase in total passenger traffic to 16.5 million,with international travelers rising 52 percent to 12.9 million and domestic passengers up 24 percent to 3.6 million.
The Airports Council International (ACI) announced earlier this month that Istanbul Airport was one of the top 10 busiest airports in the world last year.
It ranked seventh in the ACI’s list for 2022, up from the 14th spot in 2021 and 28th in 2019. More than 64 million passengers went through the mega airport last year, an increase of nearly 74 percent from 2021.
In terms of international passengers, Istanbul was the fifth busiest last year, down from the second place it claimed in 2021.
Some 7.9 million passengers went through Sabiha Gökçen Airport, located on the Asian side of Istanbul, pointing to a 24 percent increase compared with January-March last year.
International passengers grew 35 percent to 4.2 million, while domestic passenger traffic at the airport rose by 15 percent to 3.7 million.
As tourism activity gathers momentum, the number of international passengers using Muğla Dalaman Airport leaped by 439 percent, while the corresponding increase was 249 percent for Muğla Milas-Bodrum Airport.
Adnan Menderes Airport in the province of İzmir, on the Aegean coast, reported a 30 percent rise in international passengers to 436,000 in January-March.