Increase in flights a good sign for aviation sector

China's civil aviation sector will start the new winter and spring season on Sunday, planning 104,573 passenger and freight flights every week, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Wednesday.

The flights will be operated by 127 domestic and international airlines, and the season will last until March 25.

A total of 54 airlines will operate 95,173 flights per week domestically, excluding flights between Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, a year-on-year increase of 2.31 percent.

Among them, 92,970 will be passenger flights and 2,203 will be freight flights.

New air routes are being introduced by 37 airlines, operating 6,065 flights on 445 routes every week. The new routes include flights between Baotou in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Jieyang in Guangdong province, Dalian in Liaoning province and Guiyang in Guizhou province.

A total of 2,412 passenger and freight flights will be operated every week between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, a year-on-year drop of 2.31 percent.

During the new season, more international flights will be operated with 840 inbound and outbound flights per week, a year-on-year increase of 105.9 percent, Xu Qing, deputy director of the administration's transport department, said at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

Airlines have released their flight plans for the new season, resuming and increasing the number of international passenger flights.

The civil aviation sector, which has been badly hit by COVID-19, saw a better performance in the third quarter of the year compared with the second, said Wu Shijie, deputy director of the administration's safety office.

"With the orderly resumption of international passenger flights in the third quarter, the volume of passenger trips rebounded greatly," he said, noting that 537,000 international passenger trips were operated in the third quarter, an increase of 73.3 percent compared with the second quarter and 36.3 percent compared with the same period of last year.

The sector operated 1.08 million flights in the third quarter, a year-on-year decrease of 12.6 percent.

According to the administration, the sector has promoted infrastructure construction this year, investing 79.85 billion yuan ($11 billion) from January to September, a year-on-year increase of 2.8 percent.