Istanbul airports see 38% hike in passenger number in Q1

The number of passengers that traveled through Türkiye's two busiest airports in Istanbul surged 38% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

Istanbul Airport and Sabiha Gökçen Airport welcomed 24.5 million passengers in January-March, according to data compiled by Anadolu from the Directorate General of State Airports Authority.

Istanbul Airport saw a total of 16.5 million passengers, with 3.6 million on domestic routes and 12.9 million on international flights.

The mega airport served a total of 113,845 flights in the three months to March.

Türkiye's second-busiest hub Sabiha Gökçen Airport on the city's Anatolian side attracted 7.9 million passengers.

Some 3.7 million passengers took domestic flights via Sabiha Gökçen Airport, while 4.2 million took international flights.

Turkish airports welcomed over 38.9 million passengers, including transit passengers, in January-March, a rise of 31.5% from a year earlier.