The 2026 National Civil Aviation Work Conference was held in Beijing, The conference revealed that in 2025, the industry achieved a total traffic volume of 164.08 billion ton-kilometers, passenger traffic of 770 million, and cargo and mail traffic of 10.172 million tons, representing year-on-year increases of 10.5%, 5.5%, and 13.3%, respectively. For 2026, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) expects passenger traffic to grow further, though at a slower rate than in 2025: it aims to achieve a total traffic volume of 175 billion ton-kilometers, passenger traffic of 810 million passengers, and cargo and mail traffic of 10.7 million tons. At today’s civil aviation work conference, the CAAC administrator revealed that in 2026, the agency will develop guidelines for passenger transport cost surveys, explore the establishment of a fare monitoring and early warning mechanism, and coordinate efforts to strengthen oversight of online sales platforms. Additionally, according to information obtained from several airlines, the CAAC is currently collecting relevant data from airlines to calculate the cost structure of different routes. This data will serve as the basis for the upcoming “fare monitoring and early warning” system, aimed at preventing cutthroat competition through below-cost pricing. (Yicai)