China's overall aviation transportation turnover ranked the fifth in the world, and passenger turnover ranked the fourth, Yang Yuanyuan, director of General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), said at a forum themed "The 21st century and China's economy".

At the end of last year, China opened 1,176 regular air routes, including 1,015 domestic and 161 international ones, covering over1.6 million km.

Statistics show that China's aviation turnover increased 54 times compared with the figure in 1978. The growth speed was 3.4 times that of the global aviation industry in the same period.

Yang said aviation industry can promote economic and social development. About 800 to 1,100 jobs will be created with the addition of 1 million aviation passengers. Some 800 new jobs will be created with an extra 100,000 tons of cargo.

He said the creation and development of aircraft stimulated human civilization in the 20th century and will bring more to human well being in the 21st century.

(Xinhua News Agency September 17, 2003)