Scheduled Airport Operations - China Market Analysis

China now the largest airline market in Asia – where now?

China overtakes Japan with double digit growth

Up to 2003, Japan was the most important Asia/Pacific country for scheduled airline operations (expressed in total departing seats). But in 2004 China moved ahead and will continue double digit growth in 2005.

Its 130 airports have seen an average growth of 13% in capacity per annum during the 1998-2004 period), contrasting with the 1.1% rate achieved by Japan for the same period for its 71 airports.

In fact Mainland China is now second only to the United States in terms of total scheduled departing seats.

The year 2004 experienced a growth of 22% in total departing seats. According to an annual report on China’s industrial development, total passenger traffic in that year increased by over 20% to reach 103.8 million passengers.

Airline operations are concentrated essentially in the eastern coastal regions

Airlines operations have developed primarily in the large metropolitan areas of Shanghai, Beijing and the province of Guangzhou. These top three regions represented 46.5% of total departing seats in Mainland China in 2004. This percentage has changed little from the 45.9% in 1998.

In contrast, the large regions of the western part of the country (Xinjiang, Tibet, Inner Mongoloa, Gansu and Qinghai which represent all together 49% of the overall country area, 12.3% of the total population, accounted for just 0.8% of total departing seats in 2004. This percentage has reduced from 1.5% in 1998.

International operations show even more concentration

The top three regions now represent 72% of total international departing seats in 2004– up from 69% in 1998. As trade and markets develop in the rest of China, pressures will increase for direct international services for the true origin-destination markets.

While the development of these three major hubs may suit both airport operators and airlines for a while, inevitably the pressure of air services to benefit other regions directly will build.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

This summary is an extract from an ITTC analysis about airline trends and airport capacity development in China. Further topics covered include regional differences, airline competition, route connection trends and international service connectivity. Other analyses are made for Middle East, Europe and the Caribbean.

To find out more about this and our other consultancy services, please contact us either by e-mail (ittc@airclaims.com) or by telephone to Peter Morris (+442085643790) in London, or François Dormoy (+14506729152) in Montreal.

ITTC undertakes airport market analysis, forecasts and operational studies for a range of airlines, airports and financial and supplier interests. We will be pleased to send an overall description on request.