China aims to enhance on-time performance in civil air transport

China will further enhance the on-time performance of its civil air transport sector, aiming to tackle the issue of flight delays, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

In 2021, the CAAC will strive to maintain an on-time performance rate of more than 80 percent for domestic passenger airlines, the CAAC noted in its 2021 targets.

The CAAC has also proposed an 85 percent target for the average on-time performance rate in the country's major airports with an annual passenger throughput of more than 10 million.

Civil aviation authorities will make comprehensive efforts to meet their targets, such as improving flight management, optimizing assessment indicators and strengthening efforts to address flight delays, according to the CAAC.

Besides the on-time performance, the CAAC will also highlight works on building smart civil aviation, maintaining safe flight operations, as well as improving operational efficiency and service quality.

In 2020, the on-time performance rate of China's flights reached 88.52 percent, 20 percentage points higher than the figure recorded by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), CAAC statistics showed.

As of the end of 2020, China's total number of certified civil transport airports reached 241, of which 39 are major airports with their annual passenger throughput exceeding 10 million.

China remained the world's second-largest civil aviation market in terms of passenger throughput for the 15th consecutive year.

According to statistics from the CAAC, China's civil aviation sector handled 420 million passenger trips in 2020, which accounted for 63.3 percent of that in 2019, indicating recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic fallout. Enditem