国内英语新闻:China to expand investment in civil aviation sector in 2019

BEIJING, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's civil aviation regulator said Monday that the country aimed to expand its fixed-asset investment in the civil aviation sector to 85 billion yuan (about 12.41 billion U.S. dollars) in 2019.

This was compared with 81 billion yuan made in 2018, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Total transport turnover of the country's civil aviation industry was expected to rise 11.8 percent year-on-year to 136 billion tonne-kilometers in 2019, said Feng Zhenglin, head of the CAAC, at a work conference.

Passenger transport volume as well as cargo and mail transport volume are likely to increase 11 percent and 5.7 percent respectively this year, according to the CAAC.

Feng said the civil aviation industry had made remarkable achievements last year, with the total transport turnover up 11.4 percent year-on-year to 120.64 billion tonne-kilometers.

In 2018, 167 new international flight routes were launched, with 105 of them linking domestic cities with countries along the Belt and Road, taking number of China's total flight routes to 4,206.

Efforts will be made to push forward the construction of Beijing's new international airport and ensure its opening to air traffic at the end of September this year, Feng said.

He said as of the end of 2018, 55.49 billion yuan had been invested Beijing Daxing International Airport. The new airport is expected to handle 45 million passengers annually by 2021 and 72 million by 2025.