Passengers up and up into the skies

According to data from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, 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% compared to the same period last year.

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.

Total traffic throughput reached 8.77 billion ton-km, up by 19.8%, and cargo and mail volume totaled 0.969 million tons, higher by 17% on year-on-year.

International flights total traffic volume was 3.05 billion ton-km, an increase of 26.6% on a year-on-year basis.
Total passengers reached 4.121 million, up by 20% and cargo and mail reached 0.27 million tons, higher by 29.2 percent.

The average scheduled flight occupancy rate is 74.7%, and the scheduled flight load factor 65.9%, both up by 2 percentage points compared to data in the first quarter.

In truth those figure are something of a worry. They should be higher. This is the year the American airlines came in a flood and there will be a lot more in the next five years.

True, the Olympic Games will give next year’s figures a big boost and Expo 2010 comes after that. But the aviation industry in China simply has to lift its game, especially in the area of passenger service, if it is to hang on to a decent percentage of overseas flights. The food must always be as good as shown in our illustration, which is the Dynasty Service on China Airlines.

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