Chinese airports pax up 11%, cargo up 5% in 2013; 24 airports with more than 10m annual pax
CAAC reported (24-Mar-2014) 754.3 million passengers passed through Chinese airports in 2013, an increase of 11.0% year-on-year. Domestic passengers increased 10.8% to 690.9 million, of which passengers from mainland China to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan increased 7.5% to 24.4 million and international passengers increased 13.3% to 63.5 million. Cargo volume at Chinese airports increased 4.9% to 12.6 million tonnes with domestic cargo increasing 5.7% to 8.3 million tones, of which Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan cargo increased 6.3% to 780,000 tonnes; and international cargo increased 3.4% to 4.3 million tonnes. Aircraft movements increased 10.8% to 7.3 million. According to CAAC, 61 airports handled more than one million annual passengers, four more than in 2012 and accounted for 95.4% of total airport traffic. There were also 24 airports with annual passengers of more than 10 million, three more than in 2012 and accounted for 76.8% of total airport traffic. Airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou accounted for 29.0% of total airport traffic. By region, China's eastern airports accounted for 29.1% of traffic, followed by central southern region (24.0%), northern region (16.9%), southwest region (15.5%), northeast region (6.3%), northwest (5.5%) and Xinjiang (2.6%). In terms of cargo, 50 airports handled more than 10,000 tonnes of cargo p/a, one more than in 2012 and accounting for 98.5% of total cargo traffic. Airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou accounted for 51.8% of total cargo traffic. At the end of 2013, there were 193 civil airports in China, including 190 with scheduled services. [more - original PR - Chinese]