Türkiye's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) served 56 million passengers during the first eight months of 2023 up 20% compared to the same period a year ago, according to a statement by Turkish Airlines Thursday.

The number of international-to-international passengers carried via THY flights during the January-August period increased 34% to 19.7 million from 14.7 million when compared to the same period last year.

The carrier's seat occupancy rate, or passenger load factor (PLF) in the same period was up by four percentage points to 82.9%. It was 82.6% for international and 84.6% for domestic lines.

Cargo or mail traffic was down 6.9% to 1 million tons from 1.11 million tons, the company said.

The number of passengers carried by Turkish Airlines was 8.7 million in August, an 11% increase year-over-year, according to the data. The carrier also transferred 146,900 tons of cargo or mail in August.

The number of aircraft of the carrier founded in 1933 stood at 428 as of August.

Turkish Airlines earlier this week announced the decision to acquire 10 additional Airbus A350-900s aircraft, in three batches between 2025 and 2027 in a decision approved by the company board, the company said, thus further bolstering its widebody planes fleet.