On April 18, CAAC held the routine news conference of April. Leaders from relevant departments and bureaus of CAAC released news concerning issues such as work safety and operation of civil aviation in the first quarter, interpretation of the Opinions on Promoting Building of a Social Credit System by Properly Restricting Certain Persons with Serious Discredit Record to Board Civil Aircraft within a Certain Period, and further improvement of flight regularity and service, and answered questions raised by journalists. Journalists from about 30 news media inside and outside the civil aviation industry attended the conference.

Transport presented a safe and stable picture for the first quarter, and successfully completed seasonal rescheduling

In March, the civil aviation industry registered 964,000 hours of transport flight, with a year-on-year increase of 11.3%; the general aviation, 77,000 hours, with a year-on-year growth of 13.8%. China’s air transport market maintained a relatively rapid growth. It accomplished an overall transport turnover of 10.13 billion ton-km, up by 15.3% over a year ago, exceeding 10 billion ton-km monthly transport volume for the first time. Passenger traffic reached 51.4 million, representing a year-on-year increase of 15.9%, among which 46.109 million passengers were transported by domestic flights, and 5.291 million, international flights, up by 15.4% and 20.3% respectively compared with last year, with the traffic growth of international flights exceeding 20% for the first time since September of 2016. The whole industry transported in total 615,000 tons of cargo and mail, 4.0% higher over a year ago, demonstrating a sound momentum maintained by air cargo transport.

The chief of CAAC’s Department of Development Planning introduced that during the first quarter of this year, the civil aviation industry registered 2,813 thousand hours of transport flight, and 169 thousand hours of general aviation flight, respectively up by 10.2% and 17.8% over last year, with no transport aviation accidents. Transport turnover totaled 28.54 billion ton-km, 12.7% higher than last year, among which passenger transport registered 146 million, up by 11.6% over a year ago, and cargo and mail turnover 1.71 million tons, 8.3%, with faster growth existing in express delivery companies. By the end of March, the whole industry owned 3,339 transport aircraft and 2,372 general aviation aircraft, with flight efficiency staying at a relatively high level.

In March, civil aviation flight regularity across the country was 81.21%, up by 5.86 percentage points over last year. According to the chief of CAAC’s Operation Monitoring Center, the industry successfully completed the 2018 seasonal rescheduling work in March, which involved 64 domestic airlines (including 14 airlines of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) and 141 foreign airlines (of 59 countries connecting 130 foreign cities). Daily scheduled flights averaged 15278, increasing by 4.87% over the last equivalent season.

Aviation safety system and credit culture building shall be emphasized and building of social credit system be promoted

On March 2, the Opinions on Promoting Building of Social Credit System by Properly Restricting Certain Persons with Serious Discredit Record to Board Civil Aircraft within a Certain Period were issued to the public, and will enter into force on May 1.

The Opinions specify that passengers conducting the following 9 kinds of acts at an airport or on board an aircraft shall be subject to restriction of taking civil aircraft: first, making up or intentionally spreading false terrorist information related to civil air security; second, using counterfeit, modified or other people’s ID or tickets to board an aircraft; third, blocking, seizing or breaking through check-in counters, security screening lanes or boarding gates (channels); fourth, carrying or checking in dangerous, prohibited or restricted subjects provided for in national laws and regulations, or intentionally hiding subjects not regulated in national provisions but prohibited or restricted by civil aviation regulations in carry-on or check-in luggage; fifth, forcibly boarding or intercepting aircraft, breaking into or hitting cockpits, runways or aprons; sixth, hampering or provoking others to hamper air crew, security screeners and check-in personnel from performing their duties, or conducting or threatening to conduct personal attacks; seventh, disturbing cabin order by forcibly occupying seats or luggage rack, fighting or causing disturbances, or intentionally damaging, stealing or arbitrarily opening an aircraft or in-flight device and equipment; eighth, using open flame, smoking or illegally using electronic device within an aircraft despite repeated exhortations; and ninth, stealing property of others within an aircraft.

Quality, efficiency and driving force shall be reformed to guarantee high-quality civil aviation development that goes stable and lasts long

According to the chief of CAAC’s Department of Air Transport, civil aviation flight regularity across the country had stayed over 80% for 6 consecutive months since last October. After the Several Policy Measures on Controlling Operation Volume and Adjusting Flight Structure to Improve Flight Regularity Rate was implemented, flight regularity during the 2017 winter season reached 83.4%, and airport clearance regularity rate for first flight registered 85.18%, demonstrating the concrete achievement brought by the supply-side reform of the civil aviation industry.