China's aviation regulator yesterday said the mainland would cap the number of new aircraft purchases this year at 136 to avoid straining existing facilities.
But Yang Yuanyuan, director-general of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), said while that number was large enough the cap did not translate into an outright ban on new purchases.
'Based on these [136 planes], any increase would have to be strictly controlled as there is an accommodation problem as far as how much our airports and public works management can handle,' he said in Beijing yesterday.
Increased demand for air travel on the mainland has encouraged more aircraft purchases by domestic carriers such as China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines. It has also boosted prospects for Airbus and Boeing, which have looked to the mainland market as a major source of growth.
CAAC reported that 112 million passengers and 2.7 million tonnes of freight were carried by mainland airlines in the first 11 months of last year, an increase of almost 42 per cent and 27 per cent respectively over the previous year.
Boeing said last month that demand for 200 to 300-seat aircraft would grow as more second-tier Chinese cities opened up to international services.
