Turkish Airlines carried 83.4 mln passengers in 2023

Turkish Airlines (THY) flew 83.4 million passengers in 2023, marking a substantial increase of 16.1 percent compared to the previous year, reveals a statement released on the Public Disclosure Platform (KAP).

As per the figures published by KAP on Jan. 8, the number of passengers from international routes to other foreign destinations experienced a remarkable surge, reaching 29.8 million with a rate of 27.1 percent.

The number of passengers carried on domestic flights soared 19.1 percent year-on-year to 30.4 million in 2023, while passengers on international routes increased 14.4 percent to 53 million.

The passenger load factor increased by 1.9 points last year compared to the same period in 2022, reaching 82.6 percent, with 84.3 percent on domestic flights and 82.4 percent on international flights.

The volume of cargo and mail the Turkish flag carried dropped 1.2 percent to 1.66 tons in the same period.

By the end of December, the fleet size of the airline reached 440 aircraft. In November last year, Ahmet Bolat, the chairman of the board and the executive committee, said that THY aims to expand its fleet to have a total of 810 aircraft in 10 years.

The total number of passengers carried by the airline in the last month of 2023 surged by 10.1 percent when compared to the same period a year earlier to 6.1 million from 5.5 million.

Its total load factor came in at 79.8 percent last month, 80 percent on international routes and 78.5 percent on domestic.

The statement noted the airline company did not include the data on free passenger and cargo transportation carried out between Feb. 6 and May 31 last year following the devastating earthquakes in the country's south.

During this period, 433,000...