BEIJING -- China's general aviation industry has achieved major progress with increasing enterprises and aircraft over the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), according to the civil aviation authorities.

By now, China has 509 general aviation enterprises and 2,913 general aircraft, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

These numbers represented 81.1 percent and 30.3 percent increase respectively compared with those by the end of the 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015).

In 2019, China's general aircraft operated 1.06 million hours, up 36.7 percent from the end of the 2011-2015 period.

China has listed the general aviation industry as one of the strategic emerging industries and taken measures to boost its development.

Traditionally, general aviation refers to the flight activity carried out by helicopter and other small-and-medium general aircraft other than military and airlines' scheduled flights.

Over the 2016-2020 period, China has seen an emerging general aviation market carried out by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

In the period, the country has seen more than 9,700 registered enterprises focusing on general aviation operations with UAVs. The total number of China's UAVs for commercial operations has exceeded 120,000, showed the CAAC data.

The general aviation sector is playing a unique role in fighting against the COVID-19 epidemic. Various general aviation aircraft, especially the UAVs, have been used to deliver emergency supplies, conduct aerial patrol, spray disinfectants and carry out public education.

In the first eight months this year, the online registered UAV flight hours reached 1.41 million. The volume in 2019 was 1.25 million, showed the data.