The 2026 National Civil Aviation Mid-Year Work Teleconference was held in Beijing on July 15. Fully implementing the guiding principles of the 20th CPC National Congress and all plenary sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, and earnestly delivering the arrangements set out at the Central Economic Work Conference and National Two Sessions, the conference reviewed work performance in the first half of the year, analyzed the current industry landscape, and deployed key tasks for the second half of 2026. CAAC Administrator Song Zhiyong delivered a work report. He stressed that the entire civil aviation sector must closely rally around the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, pool efforts to overcome difficulties, fully accomplish all annual targets to a high standard, and lay a solid foundation for fulfilling the development goals of the 15th Five-Year Plan period.
Song Zhiyong pointed out that amid a complex and severe external environment in the first six months, the whole industry faithfully carried out the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, adhered to the general work tone of pursuing progress while maintaining stability, fully, accurately and comprehensively applied the new development philosophy, and steadily carried out education on establishing and practicing a sound view of performance. Authorities consistently strengthened aviation safety governance, formulated sound plans for high-quality civil aviation development, actively responded to various risks and challenges, gave full play to civil aviation's role as a strategic industry, and comprehensively enhanced Party building. As a result, the industry maintained an overall safe and steady growth momentum.
For the first half of the year, the civil aviation sector posted a total transport turnover of 83.37 billion tonne-kilometers, handled 380 million passenger trips and 5.073 million tonnes of cargo and mail, up 6.4%, 1% and 6% year on year respectively. It recorded 7.146 million transport flight hours and 2.683 million flight movements. The incident rate per 10,000 flight hours due to human errors dropped by 20.6% year-on-year. The flight regularity rate stood at 93.5%, and the contact stand utilization rate at airports handling over 10 million passengers reached 87.5%. The total number of real-name registered drones exceeded 4.788 million, with cumulative flight hours hitting 26.414 million, a year-on-year increase of 8%.
Regarding solid advancement of civil aviation work in the second half of 2026, Song Zhiyong put forward seven key requirements: First, continuously consolidate the foundation of aviation safety. The industry must firmly uphold the philosophy of safety-driven development, strictly implement work safety accountabilities, deepen the screening and rectification of risks and hidden dangers, continuously strengthen development of core professional teams, optimize flight operation arrangements, raise the efficiency of safety oversight, and advance special rectification of general aviation work to sustain an overall stable safety performance. Second, fully push forward implementation of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Authorities shall refine and break down plan targets, and accelerate construction of major projects and international aviation hubs. Third, actively expand domestic demand and advance opening-up. The sector shall further tap the domestic transport market, proactively serve high-standard opening-up, and steadily upgrade air logistics capacity. Fourth, strive to boost industrial quality and efficiency. Authorities shall conduct in-depth rectification of cutthroat internal competition, continuously improve operational efficiency and service quality, and strengthen the industry’s resilience against risks. Fifth, foster new quality productive forces in a vigorous manner. Efforts shall be made to coordinate the development of education, science, technology and talent pools, advance digital, intelligent and green transformation in tandem, support the growth of the aviation manufacturing industry, and promote the safe and orderly development of the low-altitude economy. Sixth, deepen reforms in key areas. The sector shall press ahead with institutional restructuring, mechanism innovation and rule-of-law development to further unlock driving forces and vitality for industrial growth. Seventh, deepen and deliver tangible results in Party building for civil aviation. Authorities shall consistently advance political, ideological, organizational, work style and discipline building to achieve new progress in Party building.
