Turkey’s airports served 193,156,231 passengers, including direct transit travellers, in the first nine months of 2026, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu has said.
Commenting on September figures from the State Airports Authority (DHMI), he said: “In the nine months of the year we served more than twice Turkey’s population.”
Domestic passenger traffic in September stood at 10,083,933 and international traffic at 15,510,913, bringing the monthly total, including direct transit passengers, to 25,603,265.
Compared with September 2025, domestic passenger traffic rose 5.9 per cent, international traffic 2 per cent and total traffic including direct transit 3.4 per cent.
Cargo traffic in September was 97,484 tonnes on domestic routes and 432,366 tonnes on international routes. Total freight, comprising cargo, mail and baggage, reached 529,850 tonnes.
In January-September, aircraft traffic was 757,441 on domestic routes and 706,574 on international routes. Including overflights, total aircraft traffic reached 1,854,502. Domestic aircraft traffic rose 1.1 per cent on the same period last year.
Mr Uraloglu said: “Domestic passenger traffic at airports across Turkey was 81,709,700 and international passenger traffic was 111,369,604. In the January-September period, a total of 193,156,231 passengers were served, including direct transit passengers.”
He said that compared with the same period of 2025, domestic passenger traffic rose 6.7 per cent, international traffic 0.5 per cent and total traffic including direct transit 2.9 per cent.
Over the nine months, airport freight traffic reached 4,124,819 tonnes, made up of 751,779 tonnes domestic and 3,373,040 tonnes international. Domestic freight rose 5.6 per cent, international freight 1.7 per cent and total freight 2.4 per cent on the same period last year.