(Yicai) Dec. 26 -- China’s civil aviation sector is expected to transport an all-time high number of passengers this year, as Chinese carriers continue to implement a ‘high volume with low prices’ strategy, according to the latest data.

Chinese carriers are on track to transport 770 million passengers in 2025, an increase of 5.4 percent from 2024 and a jump of 16.6 percent from 2019, according to a report recently released by flight data service platform Feekr.

The average economy class ticket price for the full year dipped 2.9 percent from a year earlier to CNY740 (USD105), the report said. This indicates that Chinese airlines continued to experience “high volume but low prices” this year.

This trend is partly due to intense competition in China’s civil aviation market. As early as 2023, passenger numbers in China had already surpassed pre-pandemic levels in 2019 and passenger loads have continued to rise. Despite setting a new annual high in 2025, economy fares remain low on average because most domestic carriers are sticking to a budget-friendly pricing strategy. Economy class fares tumbled 12.7 percent in 2024 from a year earlier and another 2.9 percent this year.

Of the 770 million passengers, 690 million flew domestic routes while 80 million travelled internationally. The growth rate of international passengers was higher than that of domestic travelers, largely because airlines are shifting capacity toward long-haul flights.

Some domestic routes previously served by wide-body aircraft are now being replaced by narrow-body aircraft, freeing up the larger planes for more long-haul routes to improve operational efficiency, a marketing official from a domestic airline told Yicai. This is also the reason why international capacity is growing faster than domestic.

Expanding international routes has also allowed Chinese airlines to seize market share from foreign carriers. Domestic carriers’ share of the market climbed to 69.5 percent in 2025 from 58.9 percent in 2019, while foreign airlines’ share has shrunk to 30.5 percent, according to Feekr.

This year Chinese airlines’ capacity on China-Europe routes rose to 77 percent, far higher than the 55 percent recorded in 2019, according to statistics from IBA, a UK aviation analytics firm. This advantage stems mainly from flying through Russian airspace, which shortens the flight distances and improves fuel efficiency. By contrast, European carriers, which are unable to use this airspace, face longer flight times, higher fuel costs and increased operating expenses, giving Chinese operators a distinct advantage in terms of pricing and utilization.

Despite this, as of the third quarter, Chinese airlines’ earnings before interest and tax margins remained at between 3 percent and 4 percent, below the Asia-Pacific and global averages. Surrey-based IBA says this is due to intense competition and historically high capacity levels in the Chinese market, which slow the return to profit.

Editor: Kim Taylor