The country's civil aviation industry should provide services to a wider range of people with the development of regional and low-cost airlines, an expert has said.

Li Xiaojin, a professor at the Civil Aviation University of China, said the expansion of low-cost airlines will enable the masses, not just the wealthy, to travel by air.

Regional airlines, offering commuter flights between non-hub cities over distances less than 600 km, have huge development potential, Li said.

"The existence of regional airlines will satisfy both market demand and the public interest," Hu Xiaojun, chairman and general manager of China Express Airlines, a regional carrier based in Guiyang, capital of Guizhou Province, said.

The domestic aviation market has been held back by inadequate regional airlines and small- or medium-sized airports.

Regional carriers currently have just 60 planes, or 7 percent of the country's total fleet, Hu said. This compares with 36 percent in Europe and 43 percent in the United States.

Guan Dongyuan, managing director of Embraer, a Brazilian airline company, predicted huge business opportunities in the coming years.

He forecast the number of regional airplanes in China would be 280 by 2016, and there would be 630 jets by 2026.

Embraer supplies jets to China's largest regional aviation carrier, Grand China Express, which is a subsidiary of HNA Group.

Last year, there were 896 regular civil aviation routes in China. Of those, however, only 206 routes were busy while the rest flying no more than one plane per day, Li said.

And of the total 1.3 million flights last year, 36 percent carried less than 100 passengers, which indicates a considerable amount of waste, he said.

(China Daily October 25, 2007)