China’s major airports are top ranked globally in passenger and freight volume, with Beijing Capital Airport ranked second worldwide in passenger volume for the fifth consecutive year while Shanghai Pudong Airport is ranked third worldwide for freight volume for the seventh year. Additionally, over 24 airports in China handle more than 10 million passengers a year.
Under the auspices of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the aviation industry has taken off in recent years. Currently 62 cities across China are serviced by 54 airports and 63 airport economic zones have been planned, while work on the Zhengzhou experimental airport economic zone is moving ahead at full steam.
There are 51 air-freight companies, 238 general aviation companies, 2,334 cargo aircraft and 1,621 general aircraft in China as of November. The number of certified airports increased to 202 and 24 of these airports had passenger throughput in the multi-million level while seven airports had passenger throughput of over 30 million.
CAAC chairman Jiaxiang Li said China’s civil aviation is maintaining a steady pace of growth while the quality of development is also improving. Comprehensive reforms to fully leverage allocated market resources decisively and decentralization are becoming driving forces for the industry.
The aviation authorities are fine-tuning and detailing market entry systems and regulations, and accelerating reforms of the air cargo pricing system by promoting the expansion of market regulated passenger transport prices following the opening up of air transport prices this year. The first area for relaxing price control will be the competitively priced services of non-aviation business.
Other industry reforms include the establishment of an Air Traffic Control (ATC) fee adjustment system, feasibility study on the marketization of the net price difference in aviation fuel, and the establishment and optimization of an aviation fuel hedging system.
The CAAC projects 74.2 billion ton-km total annual transportation turnover this year with 390 million passenger throughput and 5.91 million tons of freight, a y-o-y increase of 10.4%, 10.1% and 5.3% respectively. The aviation industry’s total reported profit was RMB29.94 billion in the first 11 months of the year.
CAAC’s main predictions for 2015 are: 81.72 billion ton-km in total transportation turnover with 430 million passenger trips and 6.27 million tons of freight, representing a growth of 10.2%, 10% and 6% respectively.(Translation by David)
