Mass Flight Delays Begin at Antalya Airport

Following the start of the tourist season in Antalya, the airport has ceased handling flight operations. Airplanes are waiting for hours on the runway and in the air, while dispatchers are making demands to the authorities and requesting a reduction in congestion.

Massive delays are occurring with international flights at Antalya Airport. As the tourist season begins, the international terminal at Antalya has been struggling to manage passenger flows, as highlighted by Maya Lomidze, executive director of the Association of Tour Operators.

Two days ago, on June 29, Antalya Airport serviced 1,146 flights, with over a thousand attributed to international departures, and that day passenger flow exceeded 209,000. This figure has become a record, said the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu.

Dispatchers are having to make extra efforts on their own initiative to avoid massive delays, explained a representative from the transport workers' union. Members of the organization refused such operations for ten days at the beginning of June, which increased the proportion of delayed flights by 50%, and the airport has become the first in the world for the duration of aircraft waiting on the runway and in the air. Flights are being delayed on average by 3 to 14 hours.