During the Spring Festival travel season in 2023, civil aviation passenger traffic rebounded rapidly from a low level, and passenger traffic increased significantly.
From January 21 to 27, civil aviation transported 9 million passengers during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, an increase of 79.8% over the same period during the Spring Festival in 2022.
During the Spring Festival travel period, the national civil aviation will arrange 11,000 passenger flights per day, which is about 73% of the 2019 Spring Festival travel period.
The average passenger load factor of civil aviation during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday reached 76%, an increase of 20 percentage points over the 2022 Spring Festival travel.
The goal of the civil aviation industry in 2023 is to complete a total transportation turnover of 97.6 billion ton-kilometers, 460 million passenger trips, and 6.17 million tons of cargo and mail transportation, and the overall recovery to about 75% of the pre-epidemic level to achieve a breakeven.
To this end, it is necessary to continue to increase efforts on international flight routes, continuously tap the potential in expanding the domestic passenger and cargo network, and make precise efforts in the development of smart, green and high-quality development.
Resumption of international flights boosts recovery
Currently, airlines and airports are working hard to resume international flights.
"Since January 8, international inbound flights at Beijing Capital International Airport have resumed normal operation from T3D to T2 and T3E, and all flights at the first point of entry have returned to Beijing. At present, the Capital Airport has resumed a certain scale of international routes, with a weekly flight volume of 180. Flights." Su Zengrong, director of aviation development of the Aviation Business Department of the Capital Airport, told reporters that 21 Chinese and foreign airlines have resumed international and regional flight operations at the Capital Airport.
Starting from February 6, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the People's Republic of China will resume the trial operation of national travel agencies and online travel companies to operate Chinese citizens' outbound group travel and "air ticket + hotel" business in 20 countries including Thailand.
China Southern Airlines increased its international transport capacity, resumed or newly opened 48 round-trip routes to 12 destination countries, providing passengers with a wealth of flight options departing from all over the country.
At present, China Southern Airlines United Travel Agency launches first tours to New Zealand, the Philippines, Cambodia and other destinations.
According to the statistics of Fei Changzhun and Ctrip, in January, the average daily flight volume of domestic general aviation international and regional routes in China was about 264, a month-on-month increase of 31.73%, and continued to maintain the growth momentum.
International and regional flights took off and landed 8,196, an increase of 31.7% from December 2022 and an increase of 105.3% from January 2022.
The resumption of international flights is inseparable from policy support.
On December 28, 2022, the Civil Aviation Administration issued "Several Measures for Resuming International Passenger Flights".
From January 8, 2023, the "five ones" and "one country, one policy" control measures for international passenger flights will no longer be implemented.
Some policies and measures issued during the epidemic will be abolished from January 8, 2023. All civil aviation units will promptly optimize policies, measures and work procedures in accordance with the principles of safety first, market leadership, and security first to ensure the safe and sound recovery of international passenger flights.
In 2023, the civil aviation industry will make full use of the attractiveness of China's huge market and expand the scope of international cooperation.
Improve the cooperation mechanism, consolidate the content of cooperation, strengthen communication and exchanges with civil aviation authorities of various countries at all levels, and strengthen cooperation in various fields of civil aviation with countries that jointly build the “Belt and Road”.
However, airlines and airports still have challenges to resume international flights and routes.
Qi Qi, deputy dean of the School of Civil Aviation Operations and Management of Guangzhou Civil Aviation Vocational and Technical College, believes that domestic airlines should resume the operation of various types of long-range wide-body passenger aircraft as soon as possible, and airports should strengthen the comprehensive support capabilities of international and regional flights, especially those at large passenger ports. Flight support capability.
At the same time, it actively strengthens docking and coordination with overseas airlines, increases the air passenger and cargo capacity supply of international and regional routes, and meets the actual needs of international and regional connections.
Lin Zhijie, an expert in the civil aviation industry, believes that the next step is to deal with three major challenges.
First, the tourism market still needs to recover. The recovery of the international tourism market and the recovery of travel agencies' group and reception capacity still need a process.
Second, it is necessary to strengthen international cooperation with foreign airlines such as code sharing and joint operations.
The third is the reconstruction of international sales capabilities. Under the epidemic, many air ticket agents have withdrawn from the market. Airlines need to rebuild international sales capabilities, especially sales channels in overseas markets.
"The recovery of international routes requires the matching of overseas ground support resources and air traffic rights resources. The time slots and air traffic rights resources of some core airports have broken through the distribution rules before the epidemic. The confirmation of historical time and air traffic rights cannot be ignored." Civil Aviation Science of China Zhan Fen, an associate researcher at the Technology Research Institute, suggested that when planning international routes, it is necessary to fully consider various risk factors, do a good job in international flight security assessment, and ensure the orderly and stable recovery of international passenger flights.
Expansion of passenger and freight network to unleash potential
In 2023, the civil aviation industry will encourage large-scale backbone airlines to create air express lines between hubs, encourage small and medium-sized airlines to focus on the feeder market, and expand the pilot scope of "connecting main branches, connecting the whole network".
"The domestic aviation market will be the key direction for the civil aviation industry to tap potential. The improvement of regional aviation will promote the connection of domestic backbone networks and basic networks, which will help optimize the route network, release potential market demand, and promote high-quality development of the industry." Zhan Fen said.
In the winter and spring season of 2022-2023, China Airlines will open or re-fly more than 40 routes in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Hubei and other regions, and will add a number of new branches such as Ezhou, Xinzhou, Dongying, Jingzhou and Bazhong Network waypoints.
Li Xiaojin, director of the Institute of Aviation Economics, Civil Aviation University of China, believes that there are four focus points for promoting the "connection of stems and branches, and the connection of the whole network".
By increasing the accessibility between existing airports, giving full play to the radiation effect of hub airports, strengthening the "blood supply" effect between trunk lines, branch lines, and short-distance transportation; improving the "one-time payment, one-time check-in, one-time security check, and baggage The five basic service standards of direct flight and worry-free whole journey, promote the convenience of transfer services; guide the in-depth cooperation among aviation market players, tap the potential of the transfer market, and improve the utilization rate of existing airline seats; Breakpoints in transit services will increase the willingness of passengers to take general aviation short-distance transport flights and drive the development of general aviation.
In 2023, the civil aviation industry will intensify infrastructure construction, and strive to issue 258 certified transport airports in 2023.
The energy efficiency of air logistics at comprehensive hub airports will be strengthened, the function of cargo hub airports will be fully utilized, and the steady development of air cargo will be promoted.
Li Xiaojin said that in 2022, the cargo transport volume of civil aviation will be about 6.08 million tons, returning to 80% of the pre-epidemic level.
In the first three quarters of 2022, the volume of cargo and mail transported by international routes was 1.982 million tons, which has recovered to 106.1% of the same period in 2019. However, the air cargo freight rate has increased significantly year-on-year. The main reason is that my country's air cargo is highly dependent on passenger aircraft Belly hold, cargo capacity is highly correlated with passenger flights.
In 2023, it is necessary to respond to the domestic and international dual cycle requirements, stabilize the international air cargo market, and develop the domestic market.
Zhan Fen believes that the continuous efforts of domestic policies, the scientific optimization of epidemic prevention policies, the continuous warming of emerging business formats, and the diversification of trading partners will promote the development of air cargo.
In 2023, air cargo needs to tap the potential of the domestic market and consolidate its advantages in the international market.
Continue to optimize the institutional environment, create a more convenient and efficient security inspection and customs clearance system, deepen the integration of the civil aviation industry and aviation-preferred industries, and better leverage the advantages of air cargo speed and efficiency.
Accelerate Smart Construction to Boost Green Development
The "14th Five-Year Plan" Aviation Logistics Development Special Plan emphasizes that by 2025, the civil aviation industry will initially establish a safe, intelligent, efficient and green aviation logistics system.
In 2023, the civil aviation industry will further promote the implementation of the "Roadmap for Smart Civil Aviation Construction", implement the "Guiding Opinions on the Construction and Development of Civil Aviation Big Data", and promote the classification, classification, classification, authorization and use of public data, corporate data and personal data, and effectively realize data sharing. balance with data security.
Zhan Fen believes that in 2023, there will be many smart civil aviation experiences worth looking forward to.
For example, passengers can quickly inquire about flights, boarding gates, luggage carousels and other information by "swiping their faces". Services such as self-service, differentiated security checks, and full-process tracking of checked baggage will become more common during air travel. It will also continue to improve the convenience of transit connections for passengers.
At present, China Southern Airlines Logistics has introduced exoskeleton robots at the Daxing cargo terminal, which has improved the handling efficiency and effectively protected the safety of the staff, and solved the problem of heavy load and easy injury during manual loading and unloading.
"The application of exoskeleton robots is one of the steps towards intelligentization of Daxing Cargo Station. We are actively exploring the construction of intelligent logistics, so that technology can truly reflect reality." Cheng Qian, Secretary of the Party Branch of the North China Regional Marketing Center of China Southern Airlines Logistics, said that China Southern Airlines Logistics is Accelerate the construction of digitalization and intelligence, and actively build a smart cargo station and an integrated smart logistics platform.
The Civil Aviation Administration has issued the "14th Five-Year Plan" Special Plan for the Green Development of Civil Aviation.
In the long run, the demand potential of the civil aviation transportation market is huge, energy consumption and emissions will increase rigidly, and there are still challenges to achieve a comprehensive green transformation.
In terms of green civil aviation construction, Hainan Airlines has carried out more than 30 fuel-saving measures, saving a total of 726,000 tons of fuel and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2.3 million tons. Lunch boxes, paper cups, cup lids, stirring rods, blanket bags, handbags and other supplies to help the green development of civil aviation.
Li Xiaojin said that in 2023 and beyond, the focus of green development of civil aviation is to reduce fuel consumption per ton-kilometer.
Measures worth looking forward to include gradually reducing the non-linear coefficient of the route in the air, reducing the evasion rate, reducing ground taxiing time and waiting time, and promoting the electrification of professional vehicles in the airport area.
Cui Guoqiang