The Civil Aviation Development Fund, formerly known as the Airport Construction Fee, will continue to be charged when air tickets are purchased as it has proven to "benefit the country," China's top civil aviation regulator said Tuesday.
Some 83 percent of the fund will be used to build airports while most of the remainder will cover the costs of civil aviation control and management facilities, said Li Jiaxiang, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
A small percentage of the money will also be used to subsidize some international routes that are not as lucrative as domestic ones, Li added.
"Not a single cent of the money has ever been used for any other purposes by any individual or group, including the administration," he told a forum in Beijing.
The charges are 50 yuan (US$7.84) per passenger for domestic routes and 90 yuan for international routes departing from China.
Passengers have challenged the charges as they said the money needed for airport "construction" would have been raised years ago.
Li said most of the world's major airports charge similar construction fees including those in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Canada and Japan.
He added the airport construction fees in these countries are higher than that of China.