China posts 46-M passengers in Q2

China’s aviation industry posted a total passenger volume of 45.813 million in the second quarter of the year, an increase of 17.5 percent compared to the same period last year, according to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Total traffic throughput reached 8.77 billion ton-km, up by 19.8 percent, and cargo and mail volume totaled 0.969 million tons, higher by 17 percent on year-on-year. In total, passenger volume increased by 0.3 percentage point, total traffic by 1.6 percentage points and cargo and mail by 3.7 percentage points compared to the first quarter data. Domestic flights including Hong Kong and Macao had a total traffic throughput of 5.73 billion ton-km, higher by 16.7 percent compared to last year’s data. Passenger volume also totaled 41.692 million, higher by 17.3 percent, and cargo and mail was at 0.699 million tons, up by 12.9 percent. International flights’ total traffic volume was 3.05 billion ton-km, an increase of 26.6 percent on a year-on-year basis. Likewise, total passengers reached 4.121 million, up by 20 percent, and cargo and mail reached 0.27 million tons, higher by 29.2 percent. The average scheduled flight occupancy rate is 74.7 percent, and the scheduled flight load factor 65.9 percent, both up by 2 percentage points compared to data in the first quarter. There were 29 aviation incidents but no major accidents. By the end of June, China’s civil aviation transport industry fulfilled safe flights of 31 months totaling 7.93 million hours. General aviation in China operated 27,791 flight hours in the first half of the year. In the second quarter, the whole aviation industry in China posted a total operating income of RMB 64.39 billion, higher by 17.2 percent compared to the same period last year. Expenses increased by 13.4 percent to RMB 61.37 billion. Profit reached RMB 4.09 billion. Of the total operating income, airlines accounted for RMB 45.46 billion, up by 18.2 percent on year-on-year. Operating costs also reached RMB 43.94 billion, leaving a profit of RMB 2.65 billion compared to the same period last year. In the second quarter, the whole aviation industry operated 402,000 scheduled flights. Normal flights totaled 337,000 and delayed flights reached 65,000. Flight on-time performance is 83.9 percent, up by 0.3 percentage point compared to the first quarter. Airlines with high on-time performance include Shandong Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and Hainan Airlines, with 87.37 percent, 85.43 percent and 85.42 percent, respectively. In the same period, the whole industry transported 37.576 million parcels of baggage with 1,806 mistakes, accounting for about 0.048 percent, a decrease of 0.019 percent compared to the first-quarter data.