The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China CAAC has forecast strong growth for the airline industry, predicting average annual increases in Chinese airline traffic of around 10%, which is based on an estimated 7% economic growth per year. CAAC also anticipates that by 2020, annual revenue tonne kilometers RTKs for the country's airlines is expected to reach 84 billion, compared with 16.2 billion in 2002, ranking China's air transport market second in the world.
The country's freight traffic is also expected to grow faster than passenger traffic in the years ahead as the volume of the country's imports and exports increase. Growth will come primarily from the export of...