(Yicai) April 1 -- China’s small and medium-sized airports, which deal with a throughput of up to three million people a year, handled a greater number of passengers last year than in 2019 thanks to a booming economy in the smaller third- and fourth-tier cities and a big uptick in travellers to these lesser known destinations.

Thirty-six small and medium-sized airports posted a more than 10 percent increase in passenger throughout last year from 2019, according to data recently released by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. And 24 of these logged an over 20 percent jump.

Nationwide, 1.2 billion passengers passed through China’s airports last year, almost a two-and-a-half-fold surge from the previous year, and recovering to 93.2 percent of 2019 levels, the administration said.

Those airports experiencing rapid growth in passenger traffic include small and medium-sized airports in popular tourist destinations, such as southwestern Sichuan province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in the north of the country as well as the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and Gansu province in the north west, according to Yicai research.

Young people tend to prefer niche and unique travel experiences these days, unlike the earlier trend for group tours to crowded scenic spots, Peng Peng, executive chairman of the Guangdong Provincial Society of Economic Reform, told Yicai. So there has been an uptick in visitors to small towns.

If the town has good transportation links, such as an airport, it will be even more popular, Peng said. For example, during last year’s eight-day National Day holiday, smaller cities such as Handan in northern Hebei province, Luoyang in central Henan province and Huai’an in eastern Jiangsu province that have regional airports received many young tourists.

Quzhou Airport in eastern Zhejiang province, for instance, which serves the popular tourism destination of Quzhou, logged a 118.6 percent jump in passenger throughput last year from 2019 to 884,300 people and is operating at full capacity.

As the economy bounces back, income levels are improving and spending is on the rise, Peng said. Thus in the smaller third-, fourth- and fifth-tier cities, demand for air travel and tourism is increasing.

The per capita disposable income of people living in Zhejiang province climbed 5.9 percent last year from the year before to CNY64,000 (USD8,864). The province’s county-level and private economies are well developed and the demand for air travel, both for business and personal, is growing, boosting passenger throughput at the province’s smaller airports.

Editor: Kim Taylor