Opportunities Abound in the Chinese Civil Aviation Marketplace
January 4, 2024 Leave a comment
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has published a year-end report examining the traffic numbers for 2023, and making predictions for 2024.
The report shows that the Chinese commercial aviation market is robust and growing, having surpassed its 2019 (pre-Covid) numbers.
In the Report, CAAC touted its efforts to reform the supply chain for aviation. ASA has been working with China on this project since before Covid, with CAAC having issued formal recognition of the ASA-100 standard (in the CAAC’s information bulletin: IB-FS-MAT-001 R1 (2020)). This CAAC-ASA partnership was meant to protect the integrity of the international supply chain that supports the Chinese market.
CAAC also stressed its focus on safety management (an example of which can be seen in their new Part 145 regulations, which included an SMS requirement).
Air traffic highlights from the CAAC report support the conclusion that this is a growing market:
- 2023 domestic commercial flight volumes exceeded 2019 (pre-Covid) volumes by 1.5%, and are expected to keep growing.
- International passenger flights recover from less than 500 flights per week at the beginning of the year to more than 4,600 flights per week by the end.
- Passenger traffic between China and Europe has recovered to more than 60% of the pre-Covid level.
- Regular direct flights between China and the United States have increased to 63 flights per week.
- In 2023, Chinese civil aviation transported 620 million passengers.
- In 2024, CAAC predicts that Chinese civil aviation will transport 630 million passengers on domestic routes, and will increase international flights to 6000 per week by the end of 2024.
From the CAAC Report, it appears that the Chinese aviation market has grown and will continue to grow. This could be an excellent opportunity for ASA members to increase their presence in China. ASA continues to maintain its relationship with CAAC and is proud to play a role in the CAAC aviation safety plans.
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