China will build 82 new airports and revamp 101 others during the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015) to meet rising air travel demand, a senior official said Friday.

China will have around 230 airports for civil aviation use by 2015, up from 180 in 2011, Li Jiaxiang, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), said at a press conference.

"Airport construction can boost regional economic development and narrow the gap between urban and rural areas. It will also play a key role in delivering emergency relief and safeguarding national security," Li said when asked whether the expansion could lead to overcapacity in the sector.

China lags behind developed nations in terms of airport coverage. The United States has 19,000 airports and many Japanese towns have airports, Li said.

He dismissed concerns that the nation's airports are suffering losses, saying that the 180 existing airports earned 4.6 billion yuan (US$730.16 million) last year.

Demand for air travel has grown rapidly in recent years as the purchasing power of Chinese consumers has risen.

Passengers made 293.17 million trips by planes in 2011, up 9.5 percent year-on-year, according to data from the CAAC.

CAAC vice chief Li Jun said earlier this month that he expects the country's civil aviation market to grow by 10 percent this year.

The country allocated 90.04 billion yuan to support the civil aviation development from 2006 to 2010, more than doubling the amount spent in the 2001-2005 period, official data shows.

In terms of flagging first-half profits at the country's carriers, Li Jiaxiang blamed the sharp falls to the global economic woes.

"The sluggish global recovery and the domestic economic downturn slowed passenger traffic in the first half and dampened the cargo market," he said.

China's three largest state-owned carriers, Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines, all cut their first-half profit forecasts by more than 50 percent, citing rising fuel costs and slackened market demand.

Regarding airline's punctuality, Li said poor management, high passenger traffic and extreme weather conditions are three main negative factors influencing it, while pledging that the government will urge airline companies to improve operations and management to raise punctuality.

The nation aims to raise its flight punctuality rate to over 80 percent by 2020, according to a development plan on civil aviation industry issued earlier this month.

The government encourages big airlines to launch more overseas routes and expand their networks to compete with global rivals, Li said.

Meanwhile, Li said that state-owned and private airline companies will receive equal treatment, adding that 10 of China's 46 existing airline companies are privately-owned.