On February 11, CAAC held the routine news conference of February. Leaders from relevant departments and bureaus of CAAC released news concerning issues such as work safety and operation of the civil aviation in January, work carried out since the 2018 Spring Festival travel rush and answered questions raised by journalists. Journalists from about 20 news media inside and outside the civil aviation industry attended the conference.

Transport presents a safe and stable picture and flight regularity remains over 80% for four consecutive months

In January, the work safety of the civil aviation industry assumed a stable trend. In terms of operation safety, the industry registered 933 000 hours of transport flight in January, with a year-on-year increase of 6.8%; the general aviation, 68 000 hours, with a year-on-year growth of 91.1%.

Bao Yi, Deputy Director General of Department of Development Planning of CAAC, indicated that the whole industry accomplished an overall transport turnover of 9.39 billion ton-km and passenger traffic reached 46.47 million in January, representing a year-on-year increase of 8.8% and 5.7% respectively. In the month before the 2018 Spring Festival Travel Rush, cargo transport was booming, making the air cargo transport market assume a favorable picture in January. Also in January, the whole industry transported 639 000 tons of cargo and mail, with a year-on-year growth of 12.7%, among which, domestic and international routes increased by a year-on-year 8.7% and 23% respectively.

In respect of operations of flights, the civil aviation industry secured 439 538 flights of various kinds in total in January and the daily average was 14 179 flights with a year-on-year increase of 6.66%. In January, flight regularity nationwide reached 82.05% with a year-on-year growth of 8.97% and it was the fourth consecutive month the flight regularity rate topped 80%. As of the end of January, the whole industry had a total of 5 691 aircraft, with 3 300 being transport airplanes and 2 391 general aviation aircraft.

16.01 million passengers were transported during the first 10 days of the 2018 Spring Festival Travel Rush, with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou ranking the top three in terms of passengers transported

Air travel has gained popularity during the Spring Festival Travel Rush. During the first 10 days, the civil aviation industry supported 153 696 flights of different kinds in total, with a year-on-year increase of 10.2%, and transported 16.02 million passengers, with an increase of 9.78%. This means that 15 369 flights safely transported 1.57 million passengers to destinations each day.

Liu Feng, Director General of Department of Transport of CAAC, said that since the 2018 Spring Festival Travel Rush began on February 1, among 57 important cities that had been monitored, the first 10 ones, in terms of passenger traffic, were Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Kunming, Chengdu, Xi’an, Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Haikou, accounting for about 45.6% of the total number of passengers transported nationwide. Among the 57 key cities, Xishuangbanna, Haikou and Sanya ranked the top three in terms of passenger load factor, with all of them recording a value of over 90%. Airports with a passenger load factor of less than 65% were mainly located in seasonal tourist cities and western and central cities such as Dalian, Zhanjiang, Chongqing, Hohhot, Yan’an, Zhangjiajie, Guiyang and Dunhuang.