China's civil
aviation has maintained a fast growth rate in the first ten months
of this year, a senior official of China's civil aviation authority
said on Monday.
Yang Guoqing, vice minister of the General Administration of
Civil Aviation of China, when delivering a keynote speech on
"Outlook of civil aviation in China for the next five years" at the
opening ceremony of second triennial World Civil Aviation Chief
Executives Forum, said that during the period, total air transport
turnover, passenger traffic and cargo and mail traffic stood at
24.93 billion ton kilometers, 133 million people and 2.782 million
tons respectively, up by 15.4 percent, 15.6 percent and 11.4
percent respectively over the same period last year,
He said during the past five years from 2001 to 2005, further
improvement has been seen in terms of transport capacity and
comprehensive strength of China's civil aviation despite the
negative impact brought about by the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the
SARS epidemic and the rising oil price.
The official said air traffic growth has been accelerated. In
2005, China's total air transport turnover, passenger traffic and
cargo and mail traffic reached 26.1 billion-ton kilometers, 138
million people and 3.067 million tons respectively.
The average annual growth rates of the above-mentioned 3 items
were 15.3 percent, 15.5 percent and 13.8 percent respectively
during the past five years, Yang said.
He also said that improvement has been achieved in aviation
safety; Infrastructure construction has been strengthened; Progress
has been made in science and education; and institutional
restructuring has kept under way from 2001 to 2005.
The official estimated that by year 2010 China's total air
transport turnover, passenger traffic and cargo and mail traffic
will reach 50 billion ton kilometers, 27 million people and 5.7
million tons respectively, with a year on year increase of 14
percent, 14.5 percent and 13 percent respectively on average.
While General aviation is also expected to expand its operation
to over 140,000 hours per year, up by 10 percent annually, he
added.
(Xinhua News Agency December 12, 2006)