Chinese airports pax up 10%, cargo up 4% in 2012; 21 airports with more than 10m annual pax

CAAC reported (25-Mar-2013) 679.8 million passengers passed through Chinese airports in 2012, an increase of 9.5% year-on-year. Domestic passengers increased 9.2% to 623.8 million, passengers from mainland China to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan increased 13.4% to 22.8 million and international passengers increased 13.4% to 56.0 million. Cargo volume at Chinese airports increased 3.6% to 12.0 million tonnes with domestic cargo increasing 4.6% to 7.8 million tonnes; Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan cargo increased 5.8% to 734,000 tonnes; and international cargo increased 1.7% to 4.1 million tonnes. Aircraft movements increased 10.4% to 6.6 million. According to CAAC, 57 airports handled more than one million annual passengers, four more than in 2011 and accounted for 95.3% of total airport traffic. There were also 21 airports with annual passengers of more than 10 million, similar to 2011 and accounted for 74.0% of total airport traffic. Airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou accounted for 30.7% of total airport traffic. By region, China's eastern airports accounted for 29.2% of traffic, followed by central southern region (24.1%), northeast region (17.6%), southwest region (14.9%), northeast region (6.3%), northwest (5.4%) and Xinjiang (2.5%). In terms of cargo, 49 airports handled more than 10,000 tonnes of cargo p/a, accounting for 98.5% of total cargo traffic. Airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou accounted for 53.5% of total cargo traffic. In 2012, there were 183 civil airports in China, including 180 with scheduled services. [more - original PR - Chinese]