（Photo from VCG）

Jiangsu’s civil aviation sector reported a stable recovery in the first half of the year, with passenger trips reaching a historical high.  

The province’s nine airports handled 240,000 flights, 29.966 million passenger trips and 333,000 tonnes of cargo and mail in the first six months, marking year-on-year growths of 7%, 15.1%, 18.3%, respectively. This included 1.815 million passenger trips and 50,000 tonnes of cargo and mail to and from overseas destinations, up 142.2% and 23.5% year-on-year, respectively.  

The economic recovery and supportive measures have boosted the tourism market. Several airports saw their tourist passenger volumes exceed pre-pandemic levels in 2019. Overall, the total tourist passenger trips at the nine airports amounted to nearly 30 million, 6.4% higher than in 2019.  

Jiangsu operated 40 international and regional passenger routes in the first half of the year. The province newly opened and resumed flights from Nanjing to Melbourne, Kuala Lumpur, Semporna and Caticlan, from Wuxi to Tokyo and Jeju, and from Nantong to Phnom Penh.