China's civil aviation has maintained a fast growth rate in the first ten months of this year, a senior official of China's civil aviation authority said here on December 11.

Yang Guoqing, vice minister of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China, when delivering a keynote speech on "Outlook of civil aviation in China for the next five years" at the opening ceremony of second triennial World Civil Aviation Chief Executives Forum, said that during the period, total air transport turnover, passenger traffic and cargo and mail traffic stood at 24.93 billion ton kilometers, 133 million people and 2.782 million tons respectively, up by 15.4 percent, 15.6 percent and 11.4 percent respectively over the same period last year.

He said during the past five years from 2001 to 2005, further improvement has been seen in terms of transport capacity and comprehensive strength of China's civil aviation despite the negative impact brought about by the September 11 terrorist attack, the SARS epidemic and the rising oil price.

The official said air traffic growth has been accelerated. In 2005, China's total air transport turnover, passenger traffic and cargo and mail traffic reached 26.1 billion-ton kilometers, 138 million people and 3.067 million tons respectively.

The average annual growth rates of the above-mentioned 3 items were 15.3 percent, 15.5 percent and 13.8 percent respectively during the past five years, Yang said.

He also said that improvement has been achieved in aviation safety; Infrastructure construction has been strengthened; Progress has been made in science and education; and institutional restructuring has kept under way from 2001 to 2005.

The official estimated that by year 2010 China's total air transport turnover, passenger traffic and cargo and mail traffic will reach 50 billion ton kilometers, 27 million people and 5.7 million tons respectively, with a year on year increase of 14 percent, 14.5 percent and 13 percent respectively on average.

While general aviation is also expected to expand its operation to over 140,000 hours per year, up by 10 percent annually, he added.