BEIJING — China's civil aviation industry has seen a stable recovery, with the total transport turnover reaching 46.5 billion ton kilometers in the first half of this year, data by civil aviation authorities showed.

The volume represented a 45.4 percent year-on-year increase, and reached around 74.1 percent of that in the corresponding period in 2019, data by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) showed.

The industry served 245 million passengers and handled 3.74 million tons of cargo in the January-June period, up 66.4 percent and 24.6 percent year-on-year, respectively.

The CAAC has been striving to prevent major accidents and eradicate safety risks on the ground and in air and has zero tolerance for such risks. The sector has maintained safe flight operations for 130 consecutive months, achieving 94.48 million safe flight hours by the end of June.

Thanks to the country's economic resilience and effective pandemic control, China is leading the global civil aviation industry in recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the first half of 2021, the recovery of air passenger transport sector on domestic routes was more significant, with the passenger volume in the second quarter reaching the level of the corresponding period in 2019.

The improvement of airports and other infrastructure has greatly sustained the country's continuously growing civil aviation industry, in major indicators of both transport capacity and safety performance.

Investment into fixed assets of the civil aviation sector reached 43.5 billion yuan (about $6.74 billion ) in the first half of the year, an increase of 8.5 percent year-on-year, data by the CAAC showed.

China's civil aviation sector has remained the world's second-largest in terms of passenger trips for 15 years.