The civil aviation industry is eager to fly.
During the period of Spring Festival travel rush in 2023, the passenger traffic of civil aviation rebounded rapidly from the low level, and the passenger flow increased significantly. From January 21st to 27th, during the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, 9 million passengers were transported by air, an increase of 79.8% over the same period in 2022. During the period of Spring Festival travel rush, civil aviation arranged 11,000 passenger flights every day, which was about 73% of that during the period of Spring Festival travel rush in 2019. During the seven-day Spring Festival holiday, the average passenger load factor of civil aviation reached 76%, which was 20% higher than that of Spring Festival travel rush in 2022.
The goal of the civil aviation industry in 2023 is to complete the total transportation turnover of 97.6 billion tons kilometers, passenger traffic of 460 million passengers and cargo and mail traffic of 6.17 million tons, and generally return to the level of about 75% before the epidemic, achieving breakeven. To this end, it is necessary to continue to make efforts on international flight routes, constantly tap the potential in expanding the domestic passenger and freight network, and make precise efforts in smart, green and high-quality development.
Resume international flights to promote recovery.
At present, airlines and airports are working hard to resume international flights. "Since January 8th, the international inbound flights of Beijing Capital International Airport have resumed normal operation from T3D to T2 and T3E, and all flights at the first entry point 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 in 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.
On February 6th, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism resumed the national travel agencies and online travel enterprises to operate China citizens’ outbound group tours and "air tickets+hotels" services in 20 countries including Thailand. China Southern Airlines increased its international capacity, resumed and opened 48 round-trip routes to 12 destination countries, and provided passengers with a variety of flight options for the whole country. At present, China Southern United Travel Service has launched the first tour groups to New Zealand, the Philippines, Cambodia and other destinations.
According to the statistics of Fei Changzhun and Ctrip, in January, the daily average number of flights on international and regional routes in China was about 264, an increase of 31.73% from the previous month, which continued to maintain the growth momentum. International and regional flights took off and landed 8,196 times, up 31.7% from December 2022 and 105.3% from January 2022.
The resumption of international flights is inseparable from policy support. On December 28th, 2022, the Civil Aviation Administration issued "Several Measures for Restoring International Passenger Flights". Since January 8, 2023, the "five ones" and "one country, one policy" control measures for international passenger flights will no longer be implemented. Since January 8, 2023, some policies and measures issued during the epidemic period have been abolished, and all civil aviation units have optimized policies and measures and work processes in a timely manner in accordance with the principles of safety first, market leading 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 attraction 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 at all levels in various countries, and strengthen and build cooperation in various fields of civil aviation in the "Belt and Road" countries.
However, airlines and airports still need to meet the challenge of restoring international flights and routes.
Qi Qi, deputy dean of the School of Civil Aviation Management of guangzhou civil aviation Vocational and Technical College, believes that domestic airlines should restore the operational capacity of various types of long-range wide-body passenger aircraft as soon as possible, and airports should strengthen the comprehensive support capacity of international and regional flights, especially the flight support capacity of large passenger ports. At the same time, actively strengthen docking and coordination with overseas airlines, increase the supply of air passenger and cargo capacity on international and regional routes, and meet the practical needs of international and regional contacts.
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 be restored, and there is still a process to restore the international tourism market, travel agencies and reception capacity. Second, it is necessary to strengthen international cooperation with foreign airlines, such as code sharing and joint transport. The third is the reconstruction of international sales capacity. Under the epidemic situation, many ticket agents have withdrawn from the market, and airlines need to rebuild their international sales capacity, especially overseas sales channels.
"The recovery of international routes requires the matching of overseas ground support resources and time traffic rights resources. The time and air rights resources of some core airports have broken through the distribution rules before the epidemic, and the confirmation of historical time and air rights cannot be ignored. " Zhan Fen, an associate researcher at the Civil Aviation Science and Technology Research Institute of China, suggested that all kinds of risk factors should be fully considered in the layout of international routes, and the international flight support assessment should be done well to ensure the orderly and steady recovery of international passenger flights.
Expand the release potential of passenger and freight network
In 2023, the civil aviation industry will encourage large-scale backbone airlines to build air express lines between hubs, encourage small and medium-sized airlines to focus on the regional market, and expand the pilot scope of "dry-branch and all-network".
"The domestic aviation market will be the key direction for the civil aviation industry to tap its 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 the high-quality development of the industry. " Zhan Fen said.
In the winter and spring season of 2022-2023, Huaxia Airlines will open or go around more than 40 routes in Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Chongqing, Hubei and other regions, and will add a number of new regional network destinations such as Ezhou, Xinzhou, Dongying, Jingzhou and Bazhong.
Li Xiaojin, director of civil aviation university of china Institute of Aviation Economics, believes that there are four key points to promote "connecting the cadres and supporting the whole network". By increasing the accessibility between existing airports, giving play to the radiation effect of hub airports, and strengthening the "blood supply" effect between trunk lines, feeder lines and navigable short-distance transportation; Improve the five basic service standards of "one payment, one check-in, one security check-in, direct luggage hanging and worry-free whole journey" for the whole flight, and promote the convenience of transit service; Guide the in-depth cooperation among the main players in the aviation market, tap the potential of the transit market, and improve the passenger utilization rate of existing flights; Solve the break point of transit service of current short-haul navigation routes at Ganzhi Airport, increase passengers’ willingness to take short-haul navigation flights and promote the development of general aviation.
In 2023, the civil aviation industry will intensify infrastructure construction, and strive to issue 258 transport airports in 2023. It will strengthen the energy efficiency of aviation logistics in the comprehensive hub airport, give full play to the function of freight hub airport, and promote the steady development of air freight.
Li Xiaojin said that in 2022, the cargo volume of civil aviation was about 6.08 million tons, returning to 80% before the epidemic. In the first three quarters of 2022, the cargo and mail traffic volume of international routes was 1.982 million tons, which has recovered to 106.1% in the same period of 2019. However, the freight rate of air cargo has increased greatly compared with the same period of 2019, mainly because China’s air cargo is highly dependent on the belly cabin of passenger aircraft, and the cargo capacity is highly correlated with passenger flights. In 2023, it is necessary to respond to the requirements of domestic and international double circulation, stabilize the international air cargo market and open up the domestic market.
Zhan Fen believes that the continuous development of domestic policies, scientific optimization of epidemic prevention policies, continuous warming of emerging formats and diversification of trading partners will promote the development of air freight. In 2023, air freight should tap the potential of domestic market and consolidate the advantages of international market. Continue to optimize the institutional environment, create a more convenient and efficient security clearance system, deepen the integration of civil aviation industry and aviation preference industry, and give full play to the advantages of air cargo speed and efficiency.
Accelerate the construction of wisdom and help green development.
The Special Plan for the Development of Aviation Logistics in the Tenth Five-Year Plan emphasizes that by 2025, the civil aviation industry will initially build 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, promote the classification and authorization of public data, enterprise data and personal data, and effectively realize the balance between data sharing and 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, baggage turntables and other information by "brushing their faces", and services such as self-help, differentiated security check and whole-process tracking of checked baggage will become more common. The promotion of digitalization of all-way flights and transit will also continuously improve the convenience of passengers’ transit connection.
At present, China Southern Logistics has introduced exoskeleton robots into Daxing cargo terminal, which improves the handling efficiency, effectively protects the safety of staff and solves the problems of heavy load and easy injury caused by manual loading and unloading. "The use of exoskeleton robots is one of the steps for Daxing cargo terminal to become intelligent. We actively explore the construction of smart logistics and let technology really shine into reality." Cheng Qian, secretary of the Party branch of China Southern Logistics North China Regional Marketing Center, said that China Southern Logistics is accelerating the construction of digitalization and intelligence, and actively building smart cargo terminals and integrated smart logistics platforms.
The Civil Aviation Administration has issued the "Special Plan for Green Development of Civil Aviation in the 14th Five-Year Plan". In the long run, the demand potential of civil aviation transportation market is huge, energy consumption and emissions will increase rigidly, and there are still challenges to achieve comprehensive green transformation.
In the construction of green civil aviation, Hainan Airlines has carried out more than 30 fuel-saving measures, saving 726,000 tons of fuel and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 2.3 million tons. It has also fully implemented the "plastic ban" action on domestic routes, and used environmentally-friendly tableware bags, lunch boxes, paper cups, cup lids, stirring sticks, blanket bags, handbags and other supplies in the cabin to help the green development of civil aviation.
Li Xiaojin said that in 2023 and even in the future, the focus of civil aviation green development is to reduce fuel consumption per ton kilometer. The measures worth looking forward to include gradually reducing the non-linear coefficient of the route in the air, reducing the detour rate, reducing the ground taxiing time and waiting time, and promoting the electrification of professional vehicles in the airport area.
Cui Guoqiang