BERLIN, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- In the first half of 2019, 58.9 million passengers departed from Germany's 24 main airports, an increase of 4.1 percent from the same period of 2018, the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) announced on Monday.
Increasing by 4.5 percent to 47.4 million, a large majority of passengers was flying to destinations outside Germany while the number of flights within Germany rose by 2.3 percent to 11.6 million.
Flights from Germany to Turkey recorded a particularly strong growth with an increase of 327,000 passengers in the first half of 2019, followed by flights to Italy and Spain.
The number of departing intercontinental passengers from Germany increased by 3.5 percent to 10.1 million.
However, the volume of air freight carried, including airmail, dropped by 3.3 percent to 2.3 million tons, according to Destatis.
Since November 2018, the total monthly volume of air freight received and dispatched in Germany has been continuously falling year-on-year.
In light of recent climate discussions about carbon emissions caused by air travel, the July survey DeutschlandTrend by German public broadcaster ARD showed that 23 percent of Germans who travel by air at least once a year want to fly less in the future.
However, two-thirds of Germans, both frequent flyers as well as those who flew less than twice a year, would not change anything about their flight behavior.