China's civil aviation market sees record passenger, cargo numbers in 2025: report

 The year 2025 witnessed robust growth in China's civil aviation market, which achieved record highs across three major operational metrics last year, according to official data released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Thursday.

The country's civil transport airports handled nearly 1.53 billion passenger trips in 2025, marking a 4.8-percent increase year on year. Cargo and mail throughput grew by 9 percent to 21.86 million tonnes, while aircraft takeoffs and landings totaled almost 12.45 million, a rise of 0.4 percent from the previous year, data published in a CAAC report on operations of civil transport airports in 2025 revealed.

As of the end of 2025, China had 270 certified transport airports, with 266 offering regular flight services, the report noted.

Last year, the number of airports in China that handled more than 10 million passenger trips annually reached 41, with these accounting for 83.7 percent of total passenger throughput, the data showed.

Shanghai Pudong International Airport in east China and south China's Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport were the top two airports in the country in terms of both passenger volume and cargo transport. In 2025, each handled over 80 million annual passenger trips, according to the data.

In terms of cargo services, 35 airports in the country had the capacity to handle more than 100,000 tonnes of cargo and mail in 2025, accounting for 93.6 percent of total national cargo and mail throughput, the data revealed. ■