Turkish Airlines carried 8.1 million passengers in June, down 1.6% from the same month last year, according to traffic results it reported to the Public Disclosure Platform.
The airline said its load factor rose 2.3 percentage points to 84.5%, even as available seat kilometres fell 1.2% to 23.4 billion and the number of flights declined 4.4% to 48,661. Cargo and mail volumes increased 11.6% to 201,500 tonnes.
International demand helped offset weaker domestic traffic. Passenger numbers on overseas routes rose 1.5% to 5.2 million, while domestic passenger numbers fell 6.9% to 2.9 million.
Turkish Airlines said the strongest regional growth came in East Asia, where passenger numbers rose 10.1% and available seat kilometres increased 13.3%. Passenger numbers were also up 3.1% in Europe, but fell 13.5% in the Middle East.
The group’s first-half figures still pointed to growth overall. Turkish Airlines carried 44.5 million passengers in the January to June period, up 5.5% year on year, while its load factor improved to 83.7%.
Cargo and mail volumes in the first six months rose 13.3% to 1.157 million tonnes. The airline also expanded its fleet to 552 aircraft and its route network to 358 destinations.
That combination of higher traffic, stronger cargo volumes and a larger network suggests the carrier remains on an expansion path, even as June passenger growth weakened.
