(MENAFN) Turkey’s national flag carrier Turkish Airlines has continued its free Istanbul city tour for its global transit passengers.

In line with a statement from the flag carrier Monday the 'Touristanbul' facility is going to allow Turkish Airlines travelers with connecting flight times of 6-24 hours at İstanbul Airport to see the special wonders of İstanbul.

Ahmet Olmustur, Turkish Airlines’ head marketing officer, repeated that the facility was on hold because of COVID-19 two years ago.

Olmustur highlighted that "Our goal is to increase transfer passenger numbers and our market share with this privileged service."

He mentioned that an amount of 349,738 guests have had the opportunity to discover Istanbul with the service since 2019.

Adding "We expect approximately 60,000 guests to benefit from the Touristanbul privilege until the end of the year.”

Turkish Airlines, established in 1933 with a fleet of five flights, right now it has around 380 flights, including passenger as well as cargo planes.

It flies to 340 destinations -- 287 global and 53 local -- in 129 nations.

In 2021, Turkish Airlines flew 44.8 million passengers, dropping almost 40 percent against the pre-epidemic period 3 years ago.

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