Turkish airports see 61.8M air passengers in Jan-Sept

Some 61.76 million air passengers -- including transit passengers -- traveled through airports in Turkey in January-September, according to the country's airport authority.

The nine-month figure decreased 61.8% over the same period last year, the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMI) said on Wednesday.

The drop stemmed from global coronavirus-related measures.

Domestic passenger numbers shrank 50.9% to 37.4 million, while 24.3 million passengers took international flights, down 71.4%, during the same period.

Turkish airports served 785,240 planes including overflights in the first nine months of this year, down 49.4% year-on-year.

The report also said cargo traffic stood at 1.7 million tons in the first nine months of 2020, compared to 3.1 million tons on a yearly basis.

Since originating in China last December, the pandemic has infected millions of people and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives globally.

Measures to stem the novel coronavirus hit several sectors deeply, especially travel, aviation, tourism, and manufacturing.