Air China, the country's leading airline, recorded 46 years of safe flying when one of its planes landed at Beijing International Airport at 10 pm on New Year Eve.

Air China had operated safely for 2.49 million hours since the company was set up 46 years ago, said Wang Kaiyuan, president of Air China, at a ceremony held after the plane landed.

The airline has successfully taken off and landed at more than 200 airports in 100 countries and provided more than 1,000 special flights for China's top leaders.

"Air China has good regulation systems and abundant experience of safety operations and CAAC is satisfied with its work," said Yang Yuanyuan, vice-minister of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

He noted that stricter airplane checking standards would be introduced to domestic airlines this year.

"Safety will be the most important factor for the further development of China's aviation industry as the sector's restructuring enters the next stage," said Wang.

Air China carried 8.1 million passengers and 320,000 tons of cargo in 2000, almost a 10 percent increase over that of 1999.

(People’s Daily 01/03/2001)