On December 18, CAAC held its regular monthly press conference, during which heads from relevant CAAC departments released news and answered questions from the press regarding coordinated civil aviation development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and aviation safety and operation in civil aviation industry for the month of November. Present at the press conference were journalists from more than 20 media organizations from both inside and outside civil aviation industry.

Maintaining a stable momentum in air transport safety while achieving impressive results in flight regularity

In November, civil aviation industry registered 898 thousand flight hours in the commercial air transport, a YoY increase of 13.32%; and 74 thousand hours in the general aviation, a YoY increase of 10.6%. Since the beginning of 2017, the industry has recorded 9.68 million hours and 735 thousand hours in these two sectors, representing increases of 11.6% and 2.8% respectively. No air transport accidents were reported, and a stable momentum has been maintained in operation safety in the industry.

In the meantime, a moderately rapid growth was achieved in the whole air transport industry. According to the Person-in-Charge from CAAC Department of Development Planning, the total turnover in the whole industry reached 9.42 billion ton kilometers, transporting 46.455 million passengers and 667 thousand tons of mail and cargo, representing YoY increases of 14.5%, 17% and 3.4% respectively. To be more specific, there is a 5.5 percentage points increase from the previous month in terms of domestic passenger traffic and a 4.1 percentage points in international passenger traffic, both the highest in the year 2017. Till the end of November, there are a total of 5 500 aircraft in civil aviation industry in China, including 3 228 commercial air transport aircraft and 2272 general aviation aircraft.

With continued CAAC efforts in flight structure optimization, and thanks to fewer weather related factors impacting flight operation, marked achievements were made in flight regularity at the same time a continued double-digit YoY growth rate is kept in the number of flights operated. According to the director general of CAAC Operation Monitoring Center, a total 433 999 flights were operated, with the daily average of 14 467, a YoY increase of 12.98%. In November, the nationwide flight regularity stayed at 84.59%, up 7.17 percentage points from the same month of 2016.

Proactively promoting coordinated civil aviation development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region while making clearer the roles of the airports in these three regions

In recent years, CAAC attached enormous importance to an integrated civil aviation development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. According to the Person-in-Charge from CAAC Department of Development Planning, interim achievements were made in promoting coordinated development in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region: airports in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region achieved the goal of harmonized operation and management; coordinated operation of regional airports brought better results; route network structure was further optimized, leading to an increase in the percentage of international flights at Beijing Capital International Airport from 24% in 2014 to the current 27%, while the airports in Tianjin and Shijiazhuang, which experienced rapid development, assumed the task of handling more and more flights originally handled by BCIA, and as a result handled respectively 22.2% and 28.3% more passengers in the first ten months of 2017 than the same period in 2016; transport between airports and buses terminals and railway stations witnessed continuous growth, and Tianjin airport carried 507 thousand passengers between the airport and railway station.

In terms of air traffic rights allocation, CAAC is intensifying efforts in policy development, in preparation for the earliest possible issuance of the Administrative Measures for Resource Allocation and Use of International Air Traffic rights

With respect to visa-free transit policy, it’s planned to put in place a 144-hour visa free transit policy in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, which is essential to promoting a coordinated operation of the airports in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei. In preparation for the implementation of this policy, Air China and airlines are currently joining hands with airports and other relevant entities to build an inter-connecting air route network which will facilitate passengers travel.