(Photo/Chinanews.com)

By the end of 2018, China’s civil aviation industry had seen over 60 million hours of safe operation, Xinhua News Agency reported Monday. No air transportation accident has occurred in the past 16 years.

In 2018 alone, Chinese air carriers achieved 11 million hours of safe travel, a yearly rise of 8.9 percent. The average flight regularity rate exceeded 80 percent, hitting a record high since 2010.

The number of plane passengers soared to 610 million in 2018, up 10.9 percent from a year ago, driving the RTK (revenue ton kilometers) up to over 120 billion.

Last year, China invested a total of 8.1 billion yuan in aviation fixed assets. So far, the country has built 37 airports with a passenger capacity of over 10 million, and 10 airports with a capacity of over 30 million.

By the end of 2018, China had 60 air transportation enterprises and 423 general aviation companies with over 60,000 licensed pilots. The industry has 3,638 aircraft for transportation and 2,415 for general use.

China now operates 4,206 air routes, of which 3,420 are domestic and 786 are international. One hundred sixty-seven international airlines were opened last year, including 105 along the Belt and Road route.