As of the end of 2019, China had 39 mega civil airports, each with an annual passenger throughput exceeding 10 million, according to the civil aviation authorities. Two more airports made it to the list, namely Yantai Penglai International Airport in eastern China's Shandong Province and Yinchuan Hedong International Airport in northwestern China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The annual passenger throughput of Beijing Capital International Airport once again surpassed 100 million in 2019, making it the second busiest airport in the world after Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in the United States, according to statistics from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

The total number of civil airports in China reached 238 by the end of 2019, while the number of certified general airports reached 246, going beyond the number of civil airports for the first time. China's civil aviation industry also saw strengthened servicing capacity and global competence in 2019, said the CAAC.

Last year, the country's civil aviation industry handled 660 million passenger trips and 7.52 million tons of air cargo, posting year-on-year increase of 7.9 and 1.9 percent, respectively.

China is now the world's second-largest civil aviation market. It is expected to become the world's largest by the mid-2020s, according to forecasts by the International Air Transport Association.

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover image: An airplane flies over Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing, China.)