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Daisy Wu

China’s civil aviation industry has turned a profit for the first time since 2020 – a milestone for one of the sectors hit hardest by the Covid-19 pandemic – with officials expressing optimism about its prospects for sustained growth.
In 2024, the industry reduced its losses by 20.6 billion yuan (US$2.8 billion) from the previous year and recorded a 25 per cent increase in total traffic, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) Administrator Song Zhiyong announced at an industry work conference on Thursday.
This reduction, he said, was enough to bring the sector out of negative figures.
Further improving profitability and transporting 780 million passengers have been set as headline goals for civil aviation in 2025.
Official data shows that the industry endured four consecutive years of losses after the pandemic brought air travel to a halt. China’s international flights – which saw far steeper declines than domestic routes as most cross-border trips were cancelled – still lagged behind pre-pandemic capacity last year, though 84 per cent of 2019 traffic had been recovered.
In a report last year, state news agency Xinhua said the sector would transition from explosive post-pandemic recovery to steady growth in 2024, with “returning to profitability” identified as a major benchmark for performance.
Last year, the industry transported a record 730 million passengers, Song said, well above the forecast of 690 million made at an industry conference in early 2024.


Analysts attributed the strong performance to a “better-than-expected recovery” in passenger numbers. Passenger volume, which plummeted to around 400 million annually after 2020, dropped even further in 2022, falling 42.9 per cent to just 252 million passengers.
Financial columnist Wu Xiaobo credited the turnaround to frequent airfare promotions, which he said encouraged more travel and boosted occupancy rates.
“Last year, airfare prices were often cheaper than high-speed rail tickets,” Wu noted. “For international travel, round-trip flights from coastal cities to Japan were as low as 2,000 yuan (US$273).”
Official aviation data provider Flight Manager reported the average economy class fare was 767 yuan in 2024, down 12.1 per cent compared to 2023 and 3.8 per cent lower than 2019.
China’s total aviation population in 2024 – those who took at least one flight – reached 470 million, the world’s largest aviation market according to CAAC data. It represents an increase of 160 million over 2019.
“Steady income growth and more public holidays will continue to drive demand for air travel,” Song said.
He added that expanded visa-free entry policies and streamlined procedures for transit visas would further strengthen China’s position as a global aviation hub.
However, Wu cautioned, despite the recovery the domestic aviation industry “still has a long way to go” before reaching an era of long-term prosperity.


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Civil aviation in China returned to profitability in 2024, the industry’s first positive return after four years of pandemic-induced losses


Civil aviation in China returned to profitability in 2024, the industry’s first positive return after four years of pandemic-induced losses.


China’s aviation sector in clear skies of profit after 4 turbulent years

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Civil aviation in China returned to profitability in 2024, the industry’s first positive return after four years of pandemic-induced losses

Civil aviation in China returned to profitability in 2024, the industry’s first positive return after four years of pandemic-induced losses