Aviation ushers new round of rapid growth
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2004-07-25 10:32

China's civil aviation industry, which saw increased turnover and a large profit increase in the first half of 2004, is ushering in a new round of rapid growth.

Statistics from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) show that more than 46 million people traveled by air in the first five months of this year. This is an increase of 36.8 percent compared to the same period of 2002. Because of the SARS outbreak, a comparison with 2003 is impossible.

As a result, the country's overall aviation transportation turnover reached 58.86 billion yuan (US$7.09 billion) and profits rose to 4.63 billion yuan (US$561 million), 3 billion yuan (US$362.5 million) more than that of the same period of 2002.

China's total passenger volume is expected to rise by 20 percent reaching 103.8 million in 2004, according to China's Industrial Development Report 2004. Experts predict that cargo transport volume by air will reach 2.5 million tons this year, a rise of 18 percent from last year, said the annual report.

"The reality is the first half of 2004 is even better than predicted," said Liu Weimin, expert of civil aviation sector under Chinese Society of Aeronautics & Astronautics.

In the past years, the number of China's air routes has kept growing at an average annual rate of 9.1 percent. By the end of 2003, China offered 1,176 routes with the total mileage of 2.29 million kilometers, according to the CAAC.

Currently, the lack of planes, which also results in annoying flight delays, has become a major restraint to rapid development of China's aviation industry, said Tian Jing, scholar of the civil aviation cadres management college.

In order to meet market demand, China's major airlines have ordered new planes valued at more than several billion US dollars,sources with the CAAC said.

Considering the serious impact of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), China's aviation sector handled 87.59 million passengers and 2.19 million tons of cargo last year, up 1.9 percent and 8.4 percent over 2002 respectively.

Currently, China ranks the fifth in total air traffic turnover just behind the United States, Germany, Britain and Japan.

The CAAC predicted that the turnover of China's civil aviation industry would increase by an average of eight percent from 2006 to 2010. Chinese airlines have ordered unprecedented numbers of new planes.

In the past years, the CAAC has taken a series of measures to boost the development of the civil aviation industries. It has allowed for the inflow of private funds into the civil aviation transportation and reduced and exempted taxes on feeder airways among others.

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