China air passenger traffic up 17 percent

Chinese airlines carried 16.7 percent more passengers and 15.3 percent more cargo in the first half of the year than a year earlier, the country's aviation regulator said.
The airlines carried 86.7 million passengers during the six-month period, with freight volume at 1.83 million tonnes, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China said in a statement over the weekend.
In the second quarter, passenger traffic rose 17.5 percent to 45.81 million compared with the year-ago level, while cargo volume went up 17 percent to 969,000 tonnes, it said. As of the end of June, Chinese airlines operated a combined fleet of 1,054 planes, 56 more than at the end of 2006, it added.