The outbound on-time performance of domestic airports in China has slightly recovered in August with HAK posted the fastest growth rate. Aircraft takeoffs and landings at airports with capacity of over 2 million passengers has increased substantially. Up to September 11th, Xiamen Airlines has a fleet of 153 aircrafts.

Aircraft Takeoffs and Landings

HAK grew quickly in international market

XIY surpass CTU as Top 10 takeoff and landing flights

1.51 million takeoffs and landings are handled during the Summer Travel Rush (from July 1st to August 31st, 2017) in domestic airports, grew by 8.1% year-on-year. While domestic flights increased by 8.7%, international flights slowed to 3.1%.

source: data.VariFlight.com

Note: Figures in chart refer to the period from July 1st and August 31st in 2016 and 2017.

During 2017 Summer Travel Rush, domestic aircraft movements at airports with capacity of over 10 million passengers projected an upward trend with mixed levels of growth across the nation. However, PEK, SHA and FOC fell by 5.7%, 3.4% and 0.1% respectively in year-on-year terms. HAK handled about 25,000 aircraft movements, grew by 28.1%, compared to the same period a year earlier, among which its international market kept a robust growth of 42.5%, much higher than domestic market (27.4%). Compared to 2016 Summer Travel Rush, 27 new flight routes are opened from HAK this year, including 12 international routes, resulting in an exponential growth in international market.

source: data.VariFlight.com

Note: The above graph shows new flight routes opened in the summer of 2017 with more than 3 outbound flights.

XIY grew by 8.2% year-on-year to 56,000 takeoffs and landings, making its way to Top5 followed by CTU. Although CKG increased only 0.7%, its operating capacity would be improved substantially with T3A terminal being put into service at the end of August.

Robust growth in airports with capacity of 2 million passengers

MIG led the way on the airports with capacity of 2 million passengers front, and its year-on-year growth accelerated to 56.9%. CTU capacity limited to slow passenger growth while MIG brought new opportunities to its development. KHN, ZUH and JJN remained on course to grow solidly with year-on-year growth of more than 30%. As showed in last report, ZUH eyed dawning of golden age for rapid passenger growth due to its unique location and capacity limitations in nearby airports with over 10 million passengers per annum.

Source: data.VariFlight.com

Note: Figures in chart refer to the period from July 1st and August 31st in 2016 and 2017.

From January to August in 2017, transport capacity of TYN, CGQ and HET surpassed 8 million seats, and KHN reached 7.98 million. All of the above four airports' transport capacity was more than 850,000 seats in a single month, which is expected to be more than ten million by the end of 2017 and become one of the biggest airports in China with capacity of over 10 million passengers in 2018.

Transport capacities of airports with capacity of 2 million passengers (ten thousand seats)

source: data.VariFlight.com

KHN posts 'blow out' growth in aircraft takeoffs and landings during this summer

During 2017 Summer Travel Rush, aircraft movements in KHN grew by 36.9% year-on-year to a record of 15,000, marking a rise of 24.7% compared to the last two months. In August, KHN broke the passenger record by over 1 million in a single month for the first time. Compared to 2016, 8 new flight routes were opened in KHN and, except MIG, the rest of newly opened routes were at airports with capacity of 2 million passengers. KHN-BHY was the most welcomed flight during this summer with over 15 flights operated per week.

source: data.VariFlight.com

Note: The above chart shows newly opened routes in 2017 with more than 3 outbound flights.

Compared with 2016 Summer Travel Rush, more flights were added to KHN 12 original routes, including one international flight KHN-DMK increased by three times, which means there are 15 outbound flights per week than the previous 3 flights. Moreover, KHN-SJW posted the maximal increasing rate with the outbound flights increased by nearly ten times from 4 times to 16 times per week. In addition, the outbound frequency of KHN-NNG was added to 25 times per week, which was only 4 last summer.

source: data.VariFlight.com

Note: The added flights are in comparison with those in 2016 Summer Travel Rush, which are increased by 45% and keep an outbound frequency of more than 50 times.

Outbound On-Time Performance

Outbound on-time performance grew slowly in domestic airports

In August 2017, though outbound on-time performance of domestic airports improved 3.8% than that of July, it witnessed a year-on-year drop of 18%. Among airports with capacity of 10 million passengers, URC showed the best outbound on-time performance of 79.4%, 12% higher than that of the last month and was even higher than that of the last year. TSN grew by 11.8% in August, but still far behind that of last year. The outbound on-time performance of PEK posted a strong increase of 11%, much higher than that of last month.

source: data.VariFlight.com

JHG topped the best outbound on-time performance chart, which equaled to that of the last month and was higher than that of 2016. LJG showed a decrease of 1.7% while TYH, HET and SJW projected an increase of more than 11% than last month.

Although affected by typhoon in this month, the outbound on-time performance of CAN, ZUH and SZX still improved 4.4%, 7.8% and 6.1% respectively than that of last month.

TOP10 outbound on-time performance among airports with capacity of 2 million passengers

source: data.VariFlight.com

Xiamen Airlines operates the largest all-Boeing fleet in China with 153 jets

The 2017 BRICs Business Forum was held in Xiamen, southeast China's Fujian Province. During the opening ceremony on 3rd September, the state leaders gave favorable comments to Xiamen Airlines' development. Since its foundation, Xiamen Airlines has maintained rapid development, covering 17 countries and regions. Especially in recent years, in support of China's "One Belt, One Road" strategy, Xiamen Airlines opened 8 intercontinental flight routes, making Fujian one of the best provinces with unparalleled intercontinental routes resources. During 2017 Summer Travel Rush, Xiamen Airlines newly developed 59 two-way routes (compared with 2016), including 7 international routes and 52 domestic ones.

Source: data.VariFlight.com

Note: The above picture shows new flight routes with more than 3 outbound flights during 2017 Summer Travel Rush.

Xiamen Airlines currently operates an all-Boeing fleet of 153 airplanes with B737 as the main type, including 129 B737-800 airplanes, 11 B737-700 airplanes and 13 wide-bodied planes. It's said that the carrier plans to grow its operational fleet to 186 by the end of this year and looks to surpass 200 next year, achieving another milestone in its development.

Xiamen Airlines Fleet

source: data.VariFlight.com

Notes for editors

Source: data.VariFlight.com

Period: From July 1st to August 31st, 2017.

Flights: Commercial flights only. Cargo aircrafts, corporate jets and general aviation are excluded.

Routes: Routes in this report refer to direct routes. A to B and B to A will be counted as two routes.

Newly opened routes: Routes opened in 2017 Summer Travel Rush with more than 3 outbound flights

Added routes: Routes with more than 50 outbound flights and 45% growth compared with those in 2016 Summer Travel Rush.

Inbound and outbound flights number: Actual outbound flights number and actual inbound flights (ATD and ATA of inbound and outbound flights can be found on VariFlight.com. Cancelled flights are excluded)

Outbound On-time Flights: ATD-ATA<30 minutes

Outbound On-time Performance: Outbound On-time Flights/Actual Out-bound Flights

Contributed by VariFlight