In January-August 2017, Heydar Aliyev International Airport served over 2.7 million passengers, which is 29 percent more than the previous year. It is expected that by the end of 2017 the final passenger count will exceed the last year's figure of 3.5 million passengers, which will be another record high of the airport.
During the reporting period, Azerbaijan Airlines (AZAL) carried 1.61 million passengers, 408,000 of which accounted for domestic flights.
84.9 percent of passengers were carried by international flights. According to the statistics of the first eight months of 2017, the most popular international destinations from Baku are Moscow, Istanbul, Dubai, Kiev and Tehran. 1.34 million passengers were transported on these destinations.
The five most active airlines during this period include AZAL, Turkish Airlines, flyDubai, Aeroflot and Ukraine International Airlines (UIA). 1.78 million passengers were transported on international directions by these airlines.
Currently, Heydar Aliyev International Airport serves 29 airlines on 53 destinations. Seven airlines - IrAero, Jazeera Airways, ZagrosJet, Pegas Fly, Kish Air, Nordwind Airlines and Wataniya Airlines launched flights starting from the summer of this year.
Starting from September this year, first national low-cost airline Buta Airways launched its flights. Buta Airways flies to Moscow, Kiev, Tbilisi, Kazan, Mineralnye Vody, Tehran and Antalya. Starting from October 29, the low-cost airline will start flights from Baku to Istanbul and St. Petersburg.
The new airport terminal of Heydar Aliyev Airport (Terminal 1) was put into operation in April 2014. Its total area is 65,000 square meters.
Heydar Aliyev International Airport was awarded the category of "4 stars" by the Skytrax, which is influential British consulting company specializing in the study of the quality of services provided by various airlines and airports worldwide.
In March this year Baku Heydar Aliyev Airport was named the best airport among airports of Russia and CIS countries for the level of the provided services, being awarded the prestigious Skytrax World Airport Awards.