The recently developed 13th Five-year Plan for China’s Civil Aviation Development (hereinafter referred to as the Plan) specifies five main tasks for civil aviation development in the “13th Five-year Plan” period, which include ensuring sustained safety of civil aviation, building a national integrated airport system, comprehensively improving aviation service capability, strengthening support and service quality of air traffic management and speeding up transition through reform and innovation.
The Plan lays out a range of targets for civil aviation development during the “13th Five-year Plan” period. The first target is to maintain the lead in safety with the accident rate per 1 million hours in transport aviation remaining below 0.15. The second target is to enhance the strategic role of civil aviation to continuously raise its contribution to the national economy and further increase the proportion of air transport in the integrated transport system: the ratio of passenger turnover will reach 28%, and the total transport turnover, passenger traffic and cargo & mail traffic will reach 142 billion ton-km, 720 million passengers and 8.5 million tons respectively, up by 10.8%, 10.4% and 6.2% respectively annually. The third target is to comprehensively enhance the support capability of civil aviation. A well-planned and efficient airport network consisting of about 260 transport airports will be built. Airspace capacity constraints will be alleviated and the support capability of air traffic management will be steadily improved, with the ability to offer support for 13 million aircraft movements per year. The fourth target is to improve service level by offering “cordial services” to passengers, and to improve the quality of operations to achieve a flight regularity rate of 80%. The fifth target is to vigorously promote the development of general aviation by building more infrastructure, putting in place a standard system, continuously improving the operating environment and expanding service areas. There will be over 500 general airports and over 5 000 general aircraft, with the total flight hours reaching 2 million. The sixth target is to promote green development. A standard system for green civil aviation will be built to effectively save resources, protect the environment and combat climate change, with the annual average energy consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide per ton-km dropping by 4% at least compared to the “12th Five-year Plan” period.
The Plan also introduces the achievements of civil aviation development during the “12th Five-year Plan” period. China was a world leader in terms of civil aviation safety, with the five-year rolling value of accident rate per 1 million hours in transport aviation standing at 0.032, which was far below the goal (0.2) specified in the “12th Five-year Plan”. The support capability of civil aviation was continuously strengthened, with the numbers of transport airports, general airports and transport aircraft respectively reaching 207 (not including 3 commuter airports), 310 and 2 650. The strategic importance of civil aviation increased as evidenced by a bigger share in the integrated transport system and the acceleration of integrated development between the civil aviation industry and regional economies.
