By CGTN's Chinese current affairs program “China 24”
A report from the International Air Transport Association has said that China will overtake the US to become the world's largest aviation market by 2024.
The report from the Montreal-based trade association also states that China is set to almost double its number of air trips, with almost 930 million trips expected by 2025.
In 2015, less than 500 million trips were made.
This will make China the world's fastest growing market during that period.
In comparison, the current number one aviation market – the US – will have a little over 900 million air journeys by end 2025.
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Asia Pacific is also set to see surging air traffic, as the association says future growth will be driven mostly by developing markets, including China, India and Indonesia.
And northeast China has already chipped in.
The region's first ever local carrier, which is privately-owned, has launched its maiden flight on Friday. Longjiang Airlines says it will provide domestic routes from the traffic hub Harbin to major cities across the country.
It is currently planning for international flights to the far eastern area of Russia, in a bid to expand tourism and freight transport between the two countries.
The airline also plans to gradually open up direct routes to Japan, South Korea, Europe and the United States. It also expects to create more jobs in Heilongjiang Province, which has been seeing comparatively slow growth in the past few years.
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