China’ s carriers put through 487.96 million passengers in 2016, 11.9% more than the prior year, according to Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) data.
The number of passengers on domestic routes increased 10.7% to 436.34 million, of which 9.85 million traveled to or from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, 3.4% less than the year before. Passengers on international routes totaled 51.62 million, 22.7% more than previous year.
The nation’s airports handled an aggregate throughput of 1.016 billion passengers in 2016, up by 11.1% YoY. Airline companies operated a total of 3.679 million passenger flights last year.
CAAC had registered 2,950 aircraft as of the end of 2016, 300 more than the prior year. The number of licensed airports in China increased by eight last year to 218. A total of 3,794 regular air routes are operated in the country. (Translated by Jerry)