The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has reported there were 2010 ‘civil licensed’ airports which handled 915m passengers in 2015, with 206 of these facilities operating scheduled flights to 204 cities – excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

 

The CAAC adds that all the major performance indicators at Chinese airports showed ‘steady growth’, including the precise total of 914.773m passengers – up 10.0% on 2014. In addition, airports and airlines handled a total of 14.094m tons of cargo, up 3.9% from a year earlier, plus 8.566m aircraft movements (+8).

 

26 AIRPORTS HANDLED +10M PAX

In terms of geographical breakdown of passenger volume across the country, China’s northern region accounted for 15.8%, followed by the north-eastern region (6.0%); eastern region (29.1%); south-central region (23.7%); south-western (16.8%); northwest (5.9%); and Xinjiang (2.8%).

 

A total of 26 airports all reported 10m-plus passenger totals, accounting for nearly 80% of China’s total airport traffic, with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou alone accounting for more than 27%.

 

In the first quarter of 2016, the CAAC issued licenses for international route operations to 16 domestic airlines (47 licenses/53 international routes) and 37 foreign airlines (40 licenses/53 international routes).