This year has been the most profitable ever for China’s airline industry, growing 76 percent from last year and generating $8.5 billion in profits, according to local reports, despite an overall slowdown in the economy. Over the last five years, passenger traffic grew about 10 percent per year, nine new airlines launched, and the number of commercial planes grew from 1,047 to 2,645. Several new airlines are expected to start up in 2016. Also, a new helicopter commuter service is set to launch its first flights this week.
The helicopter service, the first of its kind on the China mainland, will serve Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai, three major business hubs in the Guangdong province, with service from the central business district of each city. Each flight will take about a half hour, compared to more than two hours by ground transport. Private aviation continues to grow slowly in China, faced with a lack of infrastructure and restrictive operating rules. However, more than 100 general aviation airports are now under construction or in the planning stages across the country, and AVIC has said it will build 50 GA airports, with the first set to open by 2019. The country now has about 399 airports open to GA aircraft; by comparison, the U.S. has about 24,000.
