Air industry earns 9.1b in first nine months

China's civil aviation industry made profits of 9.1 billion yuan ($1.33 billions) in the first nine months of 2009, despite the hit the world's civil aviation industry has taken since the financial crisis, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) over the weekend.

Domestic air passenger traffic volume grew by 23.6 percent from a year earlier in the first nine months of this year.

The performance of small airports that handle less than 1 million passengers annually was the most impressive, said Li Jiaxiang, the CAAC's director.

Li said that passenger volume of small airports grew 26.7 percent year on year to 14.87 million in the first half.

He attributed the performance of small airports and regional air routes to more balanced economic development of China's different regions in recent years, which was the result of the country's strategies to develop the relatively poor western and central regions and to revive the old industrial base in northeastern regions.

Additionally, the fact that more Chinese people are able to afford air travel and CAAC's policies carried out last year to subsidize small- and medium-sized airports and regional air routes also helped raise passenger volume at small airports, said Li.

By the end of 2008, China had 116 small airports, accounting for 73 percent of the total number of the country's airports.

Xinhua
 

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