Turkey's outbound flight network has increased by 372 percent since 2003 with six airline companies flying to 300 destinations in 121 countries. This is a dramatic increase from 15 years ago when the country's flight network consisted of 60 destinations with only two airlines, the Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication Minister Ahmet Arslan said yesterday. The transportation minister said the number of aircraft increased from 162 in 2003 to 517 today, while the total number of passengers increased by about six-fold compared to 2003, reaching 193.3 million at the end of last year.

"The number of countries with aviation agreement increased from 81 to 169, which in turn contributed greatly to Turkish civil aviation," Transport Minister Arslan said.

Arslan informed that the number of active airports rose to 55 in the country and the steps have also been taken for the construction of Rize-Artvin, Yozgat, Bayburt-Gümüşhane (Salyazı), Karaman, İzmir Çeşme-Alaçatı, west Antalya, Çukurova and Tokat airports.

The tender for the İzmir Çeşme-Alaçatı airport to be built via the build-operate-transfer (BOT) model will be held on April 20.

Meanwhile, the number of passengers passing through Turkish airports increased by 11 percent in 2017, compared to the previous year, according to the Transport Ministry. Turkish airports served more than 193 million people last year.

The number of international passengers jumped 17 percent year-on-year to reach nearly 83.5 million in 2017. Around 109.6 million people took domestic flights, marking an increase of almost 7 percent during the same period.