Li Yong, deputy director of the Aviation Safety Office of the Civil Aviation Administration, said at a CAAC press conference recently that in the first quarter of 2023, the economic operation of civil aviation continued to recover and gradually improve, achieving a good start to the year's work.

First, the overall civil aviation transport production is improving, and the degree of recovery is significantly improved. In the first quarter, the industry completed a total of 23.99 billion ton-kilometers of total transport turnover, up 39.7% year-on-year, with the overall transport scale of the industry equivalent to 77.6% of the same period in 2019, a significant increase of 38.5 percentage points compared with the fourth quarter of 2022.

Second, the demand for air passenger transport recovered rapidly, and the scale of domestic passenger transport returned to about 90% of the pre-epidemic level. In the first quarter, the industry completed a total of 129 million passenger trips, an increase of 68.9% year-on-year, with the scale of passenger transportation equivalent to 80.0% of the same period in 2019, a significant increase of 51.0 percentage points compared with the fourth quarter of 2022. In terms of route structure, domestic routes completed 126 million passengers, up 66.6% year-on-year, with a scale equivalent to 88.6% of the same period in 2019; international routes completed 2.242 million passengers, up 717.0% year-on-year, with a scale equivalent to 12.4% of the same period in 2019. With the continued resumption of international passenger flights, passenger traffic on international routes has recovered to 18.1% of the same period before the epidemic in March.

           "Since the CAAC accepted applications from Chinese and foreign airlines to resume and increase international passenger flights since January 8, international passenger flights have maintained a steady increase, especially since the change of season in the summer and autumn of 2023 has further driven the accelerated recovery of international flights." Xu Qing, deputy director of the Department of Transportation of the Civil Aviation Administration, said that from the actual implementation of international passenger flights, the actual number of international passenger flights carried out last week reached 2,242 (one round-trip flight each), 4.7 times the number of flights carried out in the week before the implementation of "Category B" control, recovering to 29.4% of the pre-epidemic level, with access to 59 countries, recovering to 82% of the pre-epidemic level. The number of flights to 59 countries resumed to 82% of the pre-epidemic level. Among them, Chinese companies carried out 1,379.5 flights, accounting for 61.5%, while foreign airlines carried out 862.5 flights, accounting for 38.5%. From a country perspective, the top 5 countries with more flights to China were Thailand, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia, and the growth rate of flights to the surrounding traditional markets was obvious.

Third, the demand for air cargo fluctuated, and the scale of international cargo was still higher than the level before the epidemic. In the first quarter, the industry completed a total of 1.494 million tons of cargo and mail traffic, down 7.5% year-on-year, the size of the same period in 2019 equivalent to 89.0%, an improvement of 19.8 percentage points over the fourth quarter of 2022. Among them, domestic routes completed 925,000 tons, down 2.0% year-on-year, with a scale equivalent to 81.2% of the same period in 2019; international routes completed 570,000 tons, down 15.2% year-on-year and up 5.5% from the same period in 2019.

Fourth, the airport transport production recovery trend is good, and the recovery degree is higher in the central and western regions. In the first quarter, the national transport airports completed a total of 265 million passengers, 3.5 million tons of cargo and mail throughput, and 2.571 million takeoffs and landings, up 68.0%, down 9.6% and up 31.7% respectively, recovering to 80.3%, 93.1% and 93.4% of the same period in 2019. By region, the passenger market in the western region recovered the most, to 87.1% of the same period in 2019; the freight market in the central region recovered the most, to 106.4% of the same period in 2019.

         "Overall, the overall economic operation of China's civil aviation in the first quarter has continued to improve, and it is expected that in the next phase, civil aviation will continue to maintain a steady recovery." Li Yong said that the Civil Aviation Administration will promote the safe and orderly recovery of the air transport market in accordance with the principles of safety first, market-led and protection first, and strive to achieve effective improvement in the quality and reasonable growth in the quantity of civil aviation.