In this Aug 18, 2023 photo, passengers disembark from a flight at the Xiangxi Biancheng Airport in Laotianping Village of Xiangxi Tujia and Miao autonomous prefecture, central China's Hunan province. (PHOTO / XINHUA)

BEIJING – China's civil aviation market recorded a total of 180 million air passenger trips during the third quarter of 2023, a record high in terms of quarterly numbers, according to the country's civil aviation regulator.

The number of trips marked an increase of 108.3 percent year on year amid strong market demand in the third quarter, said Li Yong, deputy director of the Office of Aviation Safety of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

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"The civil aviation transportation sector continued to improve in the third quarter, and the scale of the industry basically returned to pre-COVID levels," Li said at a press conference held in Beijing on Friday.

In terms of air freight transport, transport volume hit 1.94 million tonnes during the same quarter, up 24.4 percent year on year. 

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The volume also marked an increase of 0.2 percent compared with the same period in 2019, Li said.