January 23, 2013
Translated by Pang Lei

There were almost 319 million passenger flights in China last year according to figures released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) yesterday.

The number of passenger movements, which includes both domestic and international routes, was up 9.2 percent on last year's figure.

Total "air transport turnover" increased by 6.1 percent year-on-year in 2012, with 60.8 billion ton kilometers being recorded domestically last year.

Passenger miles were up 10.4 percent, with a total of over 500 billion passenger kilometers being flown.

Cargo and mail volume was down 2 percent in 2012 when compared to the previous year, with just over 54 billion tons being freighted.

Last year China's aviation industry experienced the same rate of stable growth that occured 2011, a marked slow down from the heady growth numbers recorded in 2009 and 2010 when passenger numbers and other key indicators were growing at about 20 percent a year.

The State Council also recently released a paper calling for further development of the country's aviation sector, this document included a call to improve the system for predicting and handling large-scale flight delays.

Links and Sources
The Beijing News: 去年民航旅客运输量增近一成
CAAC: 中国民航2012年12月份主要运输生产指标统计 (PDF)