The civil aviation authority is planning to offer financial incentives to regional carriers to encourage them to serve non-hub cities.

Under the policy, the General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) will for the first time give subsidies to regional carriers and adjust existing subsidy measures for small and medium airports.

It is estimated that all regional carriers and more than 80 percent of the Chinese mainland's 147 airports will benefit from the new policies, the CAAC said yesterday in a news release on its website.

The policy, which will channel subsidies to carriers providing regional flights that are less than 600 km long, is intended to increase circulation at small and medium airports. There are no restrictions on the types of planes that can be used for regional flights.

But exceptions are made for those that link regional airports with Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and some popular tourist destinations, which have an average seat occupancy rate of more than 80 percent.

The administration will also give subsidies to airports with annual passenger throughputs of less than 5 million. The smaller the airports, the more subsidies they will get.

Only 19 airports have passenger throughputs of more than 5 million. They will not get any subsidies. The administration will cut subsidies for airports that have suspended air services. "The goal is to encourage these airports to restore services and stop wasting resources," said Zhou Laizheng, director general of the administration's finance department.

Gao Hongfeng, deputy chief of the CAAC, said in the release that the new policies had been designed to rebalance the development of the country's civil aviation sector.

Last year, the administration found the density of airports in eastern China is three times that in the western part; more than 30 small airports send and receive less than 50,000 passengers a year; and a few have even stopped operation.

(China Daily October 10, 2007)