How many airlines are there in China? Inventory of popular data across the entire network
Recently, the dynamics of the aviation industry have become one of the focuses of public attention. This article will combine the hot topics on the Internet in the past 10 days, sort out the number of Chinese airlines and industry hot spots, and present key information through structured data.
1. Total statistics of Chinese airlines

| Airline type | Quantity (home) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| Passenger airline | 53 | Including major trunk/regional airlines |
| cargo airline | 15 | Including professional freight such as SF Airlines |
| general aviation | 423 | Including business jet/general aviation operating companies |
| total | 491 | Data as of September 2023 |
2. Recent hot topics in the aviation industry
1.Summer transportation data reaches new high: Civil aviation passenger traffic reached 63.96 million in August, a year-on-year increase of 4.7% in 2019. Single-day passenger flows at hub airports such as Chengdu and Shenzhen broke records.
2.International routes continue to resume: China-Europe routes have returned to 75% of the pre-epidemic levels, China-Thailand flight volume has exceeded the same period in 2019, and China-US routes are still subject to traffic rights restrictions.
| Popular routes | Weekly flights | recovery rate |
|---|---|---|
| Shanghai-Paris | Class 28 | 82% |
| Beijing-Singapore | Class 35 | 120% |
| Guangzhou-Sydney | Class 21 | 68% |
3.Commercialization of domestically produced aircraft accelerates: Two C919s have been delivered to China Eastern Airlines, and the ARJ21 fleet has reached 117. It is expected that the domestic passenger aircraft market share will exceed 5% in 2024.
3. Operation data of major airlines
| Airline name | Fleet size | average daily flights | Popular routes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Air China | 752 | Class 2900 | Beijing-Shanghai |
| China Eastern Airlines | 781 aircraft | Class 3100 | Shanghai-Kunming |
| China Southern Airlines | 894 | Class 3400 | Guangzhou-Urumqi |
| Hainan Airlines | 229 | Class 900 | Shenzhen-Haikou |
4. Observation of industry development trends
1.Regional development is obvious: Chengdu, Xi'an, Zhengzhou and other central and western cities have added 7 new local airlines, such as Chengdu Airlines, Changan Airlines, etc.
2.Low-cost airline expansion: Spring Airlines’ fleet increased to 118 aircraft, China United Airlines opened 30 new routes, and the low-cost airline market share rose to 12.3%.
3.Green aviation transformation: 23 airlines have adopted sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), and Air China completed its first transoceanic flight using biofuel.
5. Consumer focus
According to public opinion monitoring, the top 5 most popular topics in the aviation field in the past 10 days are:
| Ranking | topic | Number of discussions (10,000) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Air ticket price fluctuations | 142.6 |
| 2 | flight delay compensation | 98.3 |
| 3 | New Deal for Children's Tickets | 76.8 |
| 4 | In-flight WiFi coverage | 54.2 |
| 5 | Pet shipping service | 41.7 |
To sum up, China's air transport industry has formed a complete system with 53 passenger airlines as the core and nearly 500 aviation companies. In the post-epidemic recovery stage, the industry is showing three major characteristics: domestic quality improvement, international expansion, and technological innovation. There are still major variables in the future market structure.
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