China's Civil Aviation Administration announced in a report released on Tuesday that the country's flight punctuality has dropped to 68.4 percent in 2014 due to the continuous air traffic delays.
The air traffic, which has an increased rate of 10.8 percent in 2014, has affected over 7.5 million inbound and outbound flights in the country, the administration said.
Since 2012, the flight punctuality rate in China has fallen due to problems like airline management, weather conditions and air traffic control.
In the months of July and August, the punctuality rates of airlines are at the lowest point as a result of bad weather conditions.
Each day, the airports in the country have a recorded rate of approximately 10,000 flights.
However, due to air traffic, 36 percent of the flights were held up for about 30 minutes and worst situations have led over four hours of delay to 2.9 percent of the flights.
"One of the main reasons for the drop in punctuality was the development of the domestic aviation market being much faster than the development of its resources such as airport management and related facilities," Wang Jiangmin, a civil aviation expert, told the Global Times in an interview.
Wang added that the construction of new airports, addition of air spaces and introduction of computerized air traffic control to all the cities in the country could alleviate air traffic problems.
Air China, China Southern Airlines and Sichuan Airlines are among the airlines in the country that hold the highest punctuality rate in the country in 2014.