China's air-passenger transport hits record high in 2024

BEIJING -- Chinese airlines have recorded over 700 million passenger trips so far this year, marking a record high in the history of China's civil aviation development, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China on Monday.

As of Sunday, the country's airlines reported a total of 700.48 million passenger trips since the start of the year, CAAC data showed. The total number of air-passenger trips for 2023 was 620 million, according to CAAC figures.

The robust recovery of the aviation market in 2024 has been largely driven by domestic routes, which logged about 640 million passenger trips, representing a 14-percent increase compared to the same period in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the CAAC.

International routes also showed remarkable growth, with more than 60 million passenger trips reflecting a year-on-year surge of over 130 percent as global travel restrictions eased and demand rebounded, the administration noted.

CAAC data showed that operational efficiency in the civil aviation sector reached new heights, with the single-day peak passenger volume hitting 2.45 million, an increase of 9.8 percent compared to the highest daily figure last year.

The average passenger load factor exceeded 83 percent, on par with pre-pandemic levels in 2019, according to the data.

According to the CAAC, it will do a solid work in ensuring the smooth travel rush during the Spring Festival in early 2025, and further accelerate the recovery and expansion of the international aviation market.