China's domestic air passenger trips recover to 90% of pre-epidemic level

China's domestic aviation passenger transportation scale has recovered to about 90 percent of the pre-epidemic level in the first quarter of this year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China as reported by The Paper on Tuesday.

The number of domestic flight trips reached 126 million in Q1, up 66.6 percent year-on-year, the scale was about 88.6 percent of the same period in 2019.

The number of international flight trips reached 2.24 million in the same period, up 717 percent year-on-year, which was equivalent to 12.4 percent of the same period in 2019.

As international passenger flights continue to recover, passenger traffic on international routes has recovered to 18.1 percent of the pre-epidemic level in March.

About 45.7 million passenger trips were made in March this year, up 197.4 percent year-on-year, recovering to about 85.4 percent of the same period in 2019.

In March, the whole industry completed 938,000 hours of transport aviation flights, up 116.9 percent year-on-year.

Generally speaking, the overall trend of Chinese civil aviation economy in the first quarter has been improving, said Li Yong, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration's Aviation Safety Office.

It is expected that the country's civil aviation industry will continue to maintain a steady recovery through to the next phase and the administration will strive to improve civil aviation quality effectively and the volume reasonably, Li said.