Covid-19 Pandemisi Turns Airports into Ghost Towns

Flight cancellations due to the Covid-19 pandemic have turned airports into ghost towns. In April, passenger traffic fell 99 percent compared to the previous month, while only 84 thousand people were able to fly. 65 thousand of them are Turks returning from abroad…

According to the news of İsmail Şahin from SÖZCÜ; “The aviation sector, which had a hard time due to the corona virus outbreak that affected the world, stopped due to canceled domestic and international flights.

General Directorate of State Airports Authority, airport statistics for the period of April 2020 revealed the collapse in the sector.

According to April 2020 data in Turkey in the first four months of the year-end total of 56 thousand 294 flights from 250 airports was done. Compared to the same month of last year, air traffic decreased by 31.9 percent.

GREAT DECREASE IN THE NUMBER OF PASSENGERS

Considering the number of passengers, while using 1 million 30 passengers between 33 January and 637 April, a 41.1 percent decrease was observed compared to the same period of the previous year. While the number of domestic passengers contracted by 40.4 percent, the decrease in the international line was 42 percent.

In January, 13 million 930 thousand, 12 thousand in February, 275 million, 7 million 347 thousand passengers in the month of March, while in April, only 84 thousand passengers use the airports in Turkey. 65 thousand of citizens of these passengers were returning to Turkey from abroad.

THE MOST REGRESSION IN SIRAT

Compared to the same period of the previous year, the biggest decrease in passenger traffic was seen at Siirt Airport with 73 percent, while Isparta Süleyman Demirel was the second with 65 percent and Muğla Dalaman was the third with 62 percent loss. While the number of passengers decreased by 36 percent in Istanbul Sabiha Gökçen Airport, this figure was 47 percent in Ankara Esenboğa.

4 MILLION DIFFERENCE

Since the Istanbul Airport has not started its activities in the same period last year, the number of passengers could not be compared. As of April 2020, 12.2 million people have used Istanbul Airport since the beginning of the year. Atatürk Airport, which was closed down, hosted 16.1 million passengers in the same period last year.

COMMERCIAL AIRCRAFT TRAFFIC

Turkey in the first four months of 2020 freight carried by the airports in general compared to the same period of the previous year, a decrease of 26.5'luk percent.

In January - March period, a total of 828 thousand 336 tons of freight traffic, including luggage, cargo and mail, was realized. Commercial aircraft traffic, however, remained at 36 thousand 237, a drop of 460 percent during the period in question.