Beijing Capital International Airport has started to reduce the number of domestic fl ights and will not take new applications for licenses prior to 2010, The General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) said in a statement.

The moves aim to “curb the over-fast growth of the country’s aviation market”, amid increasing congestion at major airports, the statement said on the website.

The CAAC said it has recently issued a circular requiring Beijing airport to reduce its total fl ights by 336 to 1,050 per day by the end of October and down to 1,000 by the end of March next year.

Each of the the three biggest carriers, Air China, China Southern and China Eastern, has had 10 fl ights taken away from Beijing airport beginning last month, with 48 fl ights in total removed from the airport’s schedule, said the aviation regulator.