Turkish airports host 26.2M passengers in Jan, Feb 2020

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 Atatürk Airport on April 6, 2019 -- welcomed 9.9 million passengers on both international and domestic routes and served over 66,649 airplanes.