VariFlight - China Aviation Big Data Research Center has released the Chinese Airports Development Report for January 2017:

- total actural outbound flights amounted to 0.348 million, representing a month-on-month increase of 5.2%;

- international flights amounted to 35 thousand, accounting for 10.0% of total actural outbound flights;

- outbound nonstop routes totaled 5008: 4074 domestic routes and 934 international routes;

- Beijing Capital Airport has the biggest connectedness index, 685.

1.Actural outbound flights

Domestic airpots' actural outbound flights

In January 2017, domestic airports' total actural outbound flights amounted to 0.348 million, representing a month-on-month increase of 5.2% and a year-on-year increase of 12.1%.

The actural outbound flights from 10-million-passenger airports amounted to 0.252 million, and that for 2-million-passenger airports amounted to 55 thousand.

Each airport's actural outbound flights & month-on-month growth rate

Beijing Capital(PEK)(24853 flights) and Jinan Yaoqiang(TNA)(4166 flights) have the largest number of actural outbound flights among 10-million-passenger airports and 2-million-passenger airports, respectively.

Haikou Meilan(HAK)(13.7%) and Wenzhou Longwan(WNZ)(17.5%) have the biggest month-on-month increase on actural outbound flights among 10-million-passenger airports and 2-million-passenger airports, respectively.

2. International flights & proportion

International flights & proportion

In January 2017, international flights and domestic flights amounted to 35 thousand and 313 thousand, representing a month-on-month increase of 6.8% and 5.0%, respectively. The increase of international flights is greater than that of domestic flights.

International flights account for 10.0% of actural outbound flights, representing a month-on-month increase of 0.1%. In the meantime, the proportion of domestic flights decreases by 0.1% month on month.

Furthermore, the proportion of international flights decreases by 0.5% year on year.

Each airport's international flights & proportion

Shanghai Pudong(PVG)( 43.4%) and Ningbo Lishe(NGB)( 12.4%) have the largest international flights' proportion among 10-million-passenger airports and 2-million-passenger airports, respectively.

Zhengzhou Xinzheng(CGO)(1.4%) and Wuxi Shuofang(WUX)(2.1%) have the biggest month-on-month increase on international flights' proportion among 10-million-passenger airports and 2-million-passenger airports, respectively.

Note: Because there are no international flights in Beijing Nanyuan and Zhuhai Jinwan, the movement on their international flights' proportion is not considered.

3. Outbound nonstop routes

Total outbound nonstop routes

In January 2017, domestic airports have 5008 outbound nonstop routes, of which 4074 are domestic routes and 934 are international routes.

Each airport's outbound nonstop routes

10-million-passenger airports

Beijing Capital has the largest number of domestic and international routes.

Compared with December 2016, Haikou Meilan(HAK) is the 10-million-passenger airport with the largest number of new routes in January 2017. HAK has 12 new routes, including 9 domestic routes and 3 international routes.

2-million-passenger airports

Hohhot Baita(HET) and Ningbo Lishe(NGB) have the largest number of domestic routes and international routes, respectively, which are 49 and 16.

Compared with December 2016, Hefei Xinqiao(HFE) is the 2-million-passenger airport with the largest number of new routes in January 2017. HFE has 9 new routes, including 5 domestic routes and 4 international routes.

4. Connectedness index

Beijing Capital ranks the first place in the overall connectedness index and domestic - domestic connectedness index, which are 685 and 658, respectively. Shanghai Hongqiao and Shanghai Pudong has the best domestic - international and international - domestic connectedness index, which are 239 and 224, respectively.

About the data

Source: VariFlight

Duration: January 1, 2017-January 31, 2017

Domestic airports: mainland airports; airports in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are not included.

Passenger flights: only scheduled passenger flights are included in this report; cargo flights, business aviation flights and general aviation flights are not included.

Airports classification: domestic airports are classified into 10-million-passenger airports, 2-milliom-passenger airports and under-2-million-passenger airports according to 2015 passenger traffic released by civil aviation administration.

Actual outbound flights: the outbound flights with actual departure and arrival time that could be monitored by VariFlight; cancelled flights are not included.

International flights: the international flights depart from domestic airports, including flights from domestic areas to international areas/Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Proportion of international flights: International flights / actural outbound flights

New routes: domestic airlines' outbound nonstop routes which appeared in the current month but didn't appear in last month.

Closed routes: domestic airlines' outbound nonstop routes which appeared in last month but didn't appear in the current month.

Net increase in the number of routes: the number of new routes - the number of closed routes.

Domestic routes: routes between domestic areas.

International routes: routes from domestic areas to international areas, and from domestic areas to Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.

Connectedness index: Airport's connectedness index is calculated through all of an airport's possible flight connections, while the flight connections in hub airports meet the minimum and maximum transfer time. This index, as an indicator we can depend on to assess the reasonableness of flights arrangement from transfer convenience, reflects an airport's connectedness as a transfer hub.