China's airlines see best on-time performance in almost 10 years: official

BEIJING - Chinese flights' on-time rate hit 80.13 percent last year, the best in nearly 10 years, according to head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The country's civil aviation sector has also registered over 70 million hours of safe flights, a leading track record in the world, said Feng Zhenglin.

Feng made the statement in his capacity as a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the country's top political advisory body, on the sidelines of its annual session which opened on Sunday.

The CAAC will continue to improve airport on-time performance, availability of paperless flight services and in-flight WiFi, and complaint handling, Feng said.

China is now the world's second-largest civil aviation market. The country handled 610 million air passenger trips in 2018 and the figure is expected to reach 680 million this year.

According to the forecast of the International Air Transport Association, China will become the world's largest civil aviation market between 2024 and 2025.