BEIJING — The passenger planes serving China's civil aviation industry reached 6,747 at the end of 2020, the civil aviation regulator said on Jan 12.

China's total number of civil airports in service came up to 241 at the end of 2020, including 39 large ones, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

Flight punctuality or on-time performance rate stood above 80 percent for three consecutive years and hit 88.52 percent in 2020, up 20 percentage points from that at the end of 2015.

China's civil aviation sector handled 420 million passenger trips in 2020, which accounted for 63.3 percent of that in 2019, indicating recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic fallout, the CAAC said, adding that it plans to increase the ratio to about 90 percent in 2021 with COVID-19 precautions in place.