Off to a flying start with on-time record

CHINA’S flights hit a record high on-time performance of 80.13 percent last year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The result came as the administration launched a special campaign in 2018 to improve service quality and management in the civil aviation industry. On-time departures saw an 8.89-percentage-point increase to 82.51 percent last year, and flights were delayed 15 minutes on average, 9 minutes less than that in 2017, CAAC data showed.

Thanks to paperless procedures, 225 million passengers saved 18.75 million hours.

The CAAC said that it would continue to seek improvements in airport on-time performance, ticket sales service quality, flight Wi-Fi availability and complaint handling.

China is now the world’s second-largest civil aviation market after the United States. The country handled 610 million passenger trips in 2018 and is projected to deliver 680 million trips in 2019.

According to the International Air Transport Association’s forecast, China will become the world’s largest civil aviation market between 2024 and 2025.

(Xinhua)