Airports show recovery after epidemic slowdown

Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport ranked first in terms of passenger handling capacity during the first half of the year, 21st Century Business Herald reported.

In the first six months, the airport saw its passenger capacity exceed that of China's three airport hubs, namely Beijing Capital International Airport, Shanghai Pudong International Airport and Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport.

Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport also had better performance during the same period, rising to fourth place from ninth at the end of last year.

Beijing Capital International Airport and Shanghai Pudong International Airport both saw obvious declines between January and June. The former fell to fifth place from first, while the latter came in at sixth place down from second.

COVID-19 had a bigger impact on the aviation industry in the first six months. Though some airports began to resume their capacity in May, bigger declines still remained compared with the same period last year, the newspaper said.

If the epidemic could be better in control in the second half, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou airports could experience a strong rebound. In the long term, there is no fundamental change in the roles the three airports play in domestic aviation market.

The top 10 airports handled a total of 128 million passengers in the first half of 2020. In terms of growth rate, the top 10 saw a decline of 52.68 percent, slightly lower than the national 54.2 percent drop.

According to figures released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, in the first half of the year air passenger numbers came in at 150 million, equivalent to 45.8 percent of the volume seen during the same period last year.

Domestic routes saw 140 million passengers, while international routes reported 8.52 million, equivalent to 48.6 percent and 23.5 percent of the respective volume seen for the same period last year, the data showed.

Amid further containment of COVID-19, China's civil aviation industry gradually recovered in June.

Last month, Chongqing Jiangbei Airport resumed as best among the top 10, recording a decline of 19.7 percent year-on-year, also the only one which saw a decline lower than 20 percent. Except for Beijing Capital International Airport, the remaining airports reported narrowing declines.