China has emerged as the world's largest air travel market, with more than 500 million people having traveled by air by the end of last year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The milestone underscores the rapid expansion of the country's aviation sector and its growing role in connecting people and businesses domestically and globally.

The country's civil aviation sector has set ambitious targets for 2026, aiming to handle 810 million passenger trips and 10.7 million metric tons of cargo and mail, CAAC head Song Zhiyong said at the administration's annual conference in Beijing on Tuesday.

Song also highlighted efforts to further expand the aviation sector and strengthen cooperation along the Air Silk Road, leveraging the Belt and Road aviation platform to deepen international exchanges in products, services, technology, management and standards.

Reflecting on the past five years, Song said the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021–25) was marked by a steady recovery and high-quality growth in the transportation sector.

"The entire industry has stood resilient in the face of the unprecedented impact of the once-in-a-century pandemic," he said, noting that the sector achieved growth across multiple transport indicators in 2025 compared with 2019, including total transport turnover, passenger traffic, and cargo and mail volume.

In 2025, civil aviation handled 770 million passenger trips and 10.17 million tons of cargo and mail, up 5.5 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively, year-on-year. Passenger turnover accounted for 39 percent of total transport turnover in the integrated transport system, an increase of six percentage points from 2019, highlighting civil aviation's expanding role in China's overall transportation network.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the industry recorded 630 billion yuan ($90.21 billion) in fixed-asset investment, added 49 new runways and 2,232 aircraft parking positions, and increased the number of transport airports to 270, up from 241 at the end of 2020.

China's civil aviation fleet has grown steadily, with a rising share of domestically produced aircraft. By the end of 2025, 220 homegrown planes were in operation, while official data showed that by 2024 the total registered transport aircraft fleet had reached 4,394.

The expanded fleet has supported a growing international route network linking 263 cities in 90 countries. International flight volumes have recovered to more than 90 percent of prepandemic levels, with international passenger traffic rising 21.6 percent compared with 2024 and regular China-India flights resuming.

Passenger traffic to Central Asia, West Asia, Africa and Latin America increased 59.3 percent, 33.4 percent, 39 percent and 108.6 percent, respectively, reflecting the rapid recovery and expansion of China's overseas air connectivity.

China's homegrown aircraft program has also reached a major milestone. The C919 aircraft has safely recorded more than 4 million passenger trips, underscoring advances in the country's domestic commercial aviation capabilities and its growing presence in international air transport.

luowangshu@chinadaily.com.cn