China - Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide

The value for Air transport, registered carrier departures worldwide in China was 3,667,920 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 46 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 4,963,752 in 2019 and a minimum value of 21,200 in 1974.

Definition: Registered carrier departures worldwide are domestic takeoffs and takeoffs abroad of air carriers registered in the country.

Source: International Civil Aviation Organization, Civil Aviation Statistics of the World and ICAO staff estimates.

See also:

Year Value
1974 21,200
1975 26,600
1976 27,700
1977 28,800
1978 34,000
1979 63,000
1980 51,000
1981 57,300
1982 69,800
1983 74,000
1984 92,500
1985 102,200
1986 127,900
1987 159,700
1988 176,900
1989 159,200
1990 196,000
1991 190,300
1992 200,300
1993 261,600
1994 325,900
1995 397,600
1996 493,000
1997 470,200
1998 510,500
1999 547,800
2000 572,921
2001 840,911
2002 932,064
2003 946,354
2004 1,209,900
2005 1,349,269
2006 1,542,564
2007 1,753,550
2008 1,853,088
2009 2,140,124
2010 2,377,789
2011 2,538,667
2012 2,779,741
2013 3,073,450
2014 3,356,756
2015 3,616,026
2016 3,952,098
2017 4,359,033
2018 4,692,008
2019 4,963,752
2020 3,667,920

Development Relevance: Transport infrastructure - highways, railways, ports and waterways, and airports and air traffic control systems - and the services that flow from it are crucial to the activities of households, producers, and governments. Because performance indicators vary widely by transport mode and focus (whether physical infrastructure or the services flowing from that infrastructure), highly specialized and carefully specified indicators are required to measure a country's transport infrastructure. The air transport industry a vital engine of global socio-economic growth. It is of vital importance for economic development, creating direct and indirect employment, supporting tourism and local businesses, and stimulating foreign investment and international trade. Economic growth, technological change, market liberalization, the growth of low cost carriers, airport congestion, oil prices and other trends affect commercial aviation throughout the world.

Limitations and Exceptions: Countries submit air transport data to Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on the basis of standard instructions and definitions issued by ICAO. In many cases, however, the data include estimates by ICAO for nonreporting carriers. Where possible, these estimates are based on previous submissions supplemented by information published by the air carriers, such as flight schedules. The data cover the air traffic carried on scheduled services, but changes in air transport regulations in Europe have made it more difficult to classify traffic as scheduled or nonscheduled. Thus recent increases shown for some European countries may be due to changes in the classification of air traffic rather than actual growth. In the case of multinational air carriers owned by partner States, traffic within each partner State is shown separately as domestic and all other traffic as international. "Foreign" cabotage traffic (i.e. traffic carried between city-pairs in a State other than the one where the reporting carrier has its principal place of business) is shown as international traffic. A technical stop does not result in any flight stage being classified differently than would have been the case had the technical stop not been made. For countries with few air carriers or only one, the addition or discontinuation of a home-based air carrier may cause significant changes in air traffic. Data for transport sectors are not always internationally comparable. Unlike for demographic statistics, national income accounts, and international trade data, the collection of infrastructure data has not been "internationalized."

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The air transport data represent the total (international and domestic) scheduled traffic carried by the air carriers registered in a country. For statistical uses, departures are equal to the number of landings made or flight stages flown. A flight stage is the operation of an aircraft from take-off to its next landing. A flight stage is classified as either international or domestic. International flight stage is one or both terminals in the territory of a State, other than the State in which the air carrier has its principal place of business. Domestic flight stage is not classifiable as international. Domestic flight stages include all flight stages flown between points within the domestic boundaries of a State by an air carrier whose principal place of business is in that State. Flight stages between a State and territories belonging to it, as well as any flight stages between two such territories, should be classified as domestic. This applies even though a stage may cross international waters or over the territory of another State.

Aggregation method: Sum

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Infrastructure Indicators

Sub-Topic: Transportation