Air Passengers Carried in China by Year, 2000-2023

About This Dataset

Passengers carried each year by air carriers registered in China, in millions, from 2000 to 2023. The series traces one of the fastest aviation expansions on record, and an unusually long disruption in which China's deepest year arrived in 2022 rather than 2020.

✨ AI Insight

Chinese carriers flew 61.9 million passengers in 2000 and 619.2 million in 2023, exactly ten times as many, having climbed without a single down year until 2019. The peak was 659.6 million in 2019. What followed is unlike most countries: traffic fell 36.7% to 417.3 million in 2020, partially recovered to 440.3 million in 2021, then collapsed again to 250.8 million in 2022. That second fall is the striking one. It left 2022 far below 2020 and 62.0% under the 2019 peak, the lowest annual total since 2009. Traffic then rebounded to 619.2 million in 2023, still 6.1% short of 2019.

Source: World Bank / International Civil Aviation Organization

Key Findings

Auto-computed highlights from this dataset

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2019 leads with 660 in 2000-2023.

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Average value in 2000-2023: 309 · median: 279.

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Gap in 2000-2023: 2019 is 10.7× larger than 2000.