Sabiha Gökçen Airport

In a significant stride towards enhancing connectivity between Turkey and Bulgaria, the launch of direct flights between Istanbul and Sofia marks a milestone in air travel. The initiative, spearheaded by the low-cost airline "Pegasus," is set to commence operations from May 1, 2024, promising convenient and affordable travel options for passengers.

Turkish Airlines (THY) and Pegasus Airlines have canceled their flights to Iran, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon scheduled for late on April 13 and April 14 for security reasons in the wake of Iran's retaliatory missile strike against Israel.

Istanbul has attracted a total of 2.46 million foreign tourists in the first two months of 2024, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has said.

Foreign tourist arrivals in the city, which is also Türkiye's financial and commercial center, increased by 8.1 percent compared to the January-February period of last year.

An intense blanket of fog enveloped Istanbul in the early hours of the Feb. 29 morning, disrupting traffic and causing flight delays.

The fog intensified around the high and northern regions of the Bosphorus and around Trans-European Motorways (TEM) spanning Ümraniye, Kavacık, Altunizade, Fatih Sultan Mehmet and Yavuz Sultan Selim bridges.

Turkish airports served 14.7 million passengers in the first month of 2024, pointing to an 8.1 percent increase compared to January 2023, according to data from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ).

International passengers rose by 12 percent to 7.7 million, while the domestic passenger tally was up 4.2 percent to around 7.1 million people.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has announced that the Turkish-Japanese Science and Technology University (TJU) is set to commence operations later this year.

The security forces have apprehended a social media influencer and his wife accused of fleeing the country after orchestrating a scam amounting to approximately 150 million Turkish Liras ($5.1 million) at an airport in Istanbul.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has slammed last week's deadly attacks by the PKK, declaring that Türkiye "will not be deterred by terrorism" and vowing to persist in the fight against it.

Total of 94.5 million passengers have gone through Türkiye's airports in the first six months of 2023, data from the General Directorate of State Airports Authority (DHMİ) have shown.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Istanbul increased by 19 percent from a year ago in the first five months of 2023 to around 6.3 million.

In May alone, 1.5 million foreign tourists arrived in the city, according to the data from the provincial directorate of culture and tourism. This marked a 7 percent increase in tourist arrivals compared with the same month of last year.