China plans to invest more than CNY1.5 trillion in the aviation industry over the next five years to meet surging demand. By 2015, the country is expected to have more than 220 commercial airports and its fleet size will expand to more than 4,500 planes, Li Jiaxiang, Director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said. The country currently has 175 commercial airports in operation and keeps more than 2,600 aircraft in its fleet, according to Li. China has 43 airlines, including eight privately-owned carriers. The government encourages private investment in the civil aviation sector and three new private airlines will soon submit business applications to the regulator, Li added. He predicted 450 to 500 million air passenger trips would be made annually by 2015, and the CAAC aims to expand that target to 1.5 billion by 2030. A total of 267 million air passenger trips were recorded in China last year, up 15.8% from the previous year. Chinese airlines account for 46% of passenger flights in and out of China. Li said about 130 of China’s 175 airports made a combined loss of CNY1.7 billion last year, while about CNY6 billion in subsidies were handed out between 2006-2010.