Recently, CAAC issued 2018 Statistical Bulletin for Civil Aviation Airports (“Statistical Bulletin”), which comprehensively demonstrated the operation performance of civil airports in 2018.

The Statistical Bulletin showed that in 2018 Chinese transport airports increased by 5 including Gansu Longnan Airport, Qinghai Haibei Airport, Henan Xinyang Airport, etc.; Shaanxi Ankang Airport and Guangxi Wuzhou Xijiang Airport (original Wuzhou Changzhoudao Airport) were suspended; and the number of certified civil aviation airports reached 235 (excluding Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions).

The Statistical Bulletin pointed out that Chinese airprots handled 1.264 billion passengers in 2018, up by 10.2% over 2017, among which domestic flights transported 1.138 billion passengers and international flights, 126 million. Mail and cargo turnover registered 16.74 million tons and flight movements reached 11.088 million.

The Statistical Bulletin also contained data on growth of airports — the number of airports with annual passenger throughput exceeding 10 million reached 37. Capital International Airport hit 10 billion in terms of passenger traffic, ranking the first nationwide, followed by Shanghai Pudong, Guangzhou Baiyun, Chengdu Shuangliu, Shenzhen Baoan, Kunming Changshui, Xi’an Xianyang, Shanghai Hongqiao, Chongqing Jiangbei and Hangzhou Xiaoshan. 29 airports had an annual passenger throughput between 2 million and 10 million, and 169 airports had an annual passenger throughput below 2 million.

The Statistical Bulletin analyzed passenger traffic handled by the four major airport clusters in 2018 — Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei airport cluster, 151 million; Yangtze River Delta Airport Cluster, 228 million; airport cluster of nine cities in the Pearl River Delta of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, 132.2 million; and Chengdu-Chongqing airport cluster, 102 million. Coordinated but differentiated development has improved the overall competitiveness of airport clusters, which will help accelerate the building of world-class airport clusters.

In terms of the growth rate of passenger throughput, Jiangxi province achieved the fastest growth, increasing by 22.5 percentage points, with 22 provinces (regions and cities) including Jiangxi, Anhui and Hebei registering growth faster than national average (10.2%). In terms of cargo and mail turnover, 53 airports hit an annual cargo and mail turnover over 10 thousand tons, among which airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou accounted for 48.8% of cargo and mail handled in all domestic airports. 10 provinces (regions and cities) including Hebei, Jiangxi and Hubei registered growth rate over 10% in cargo and mail turnover.