Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) carried 24 million passengers during the first five months of 2022, surpassing pre-pandemic levels, it announced on Thursday.

The load factor was 73.5% during the five-month period, including 72.5% for international routes and 82.8% for domestic ones.

The air carrier also carried 673,000 tons of cargo and mail, while the number of aircraft reached 376 as of May.

In May alone, the firm served 6.3 million passengers and carried 144,000 tons of cargo and mail.

"The total number of passengers, which was 5.9 million in May 2019, reached 6.3 million in the same period of 2022," it said in the statement.

THY General Manager Bilal Ekşi, commenting on the figures, stated that although the aviation industry came to a standstill during the pandemic, it never stopped as THY.

"We worked knowing that we would return to our success-targeting route more strongly. We aimed for these days. Our figures for May show that our goals and dreams have started to come true," Ekşi said.

Established in 1933, Turkish Airlines flies to 339 worldwide destinations in 335 cities, 284 international and 51 domestic, across 129 countries.