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ANKARA (AA) – Turkish-German joint venture SunExpress has served more than 3 million passengers so far in 2021, the airline said on Saturday.

Following a rocky period on aviation sector last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, "the total number of passengers carried by SunExpress jumped 43% year-on-year," it revealed in a statement.

The company's seat occupancy rate – passenger load factor – reached 85% by rising flight frequency to Turkey's holiday destinations, as well as adding new destinations to its network after travel restrictions were eased.

Based in Turkey's sunny Antalya on the Mediterranean coast, SunExpress was founded in 1989 as a joint venture of Turkish Airlines and Germany's Lufthansa.