According to the administration, China's aviation industry carried 73.99 million passengers and 1.56 million tons of cargo in the first six months, up 17.5 percent and 11.5 percent respectively over the same period of last year.

The passenger flow between China and neighbouring countries also witnessed an increase in the first half year with passengers flying to Russian doubling and air travel to the Republic of Korea and Vietnam increasing by 15 percent and 36.6 percent respectively.

Air travelers flying to the United States, Canada, Germany and Britain went up 16.5 percent, 19.2 percent, 13.3 percent and 15.7 percent respectively in the first half of the year.

The increase in domestic air travel was even greater than that of international airlines and aviation transportation in central China was faster than other regions of the country in the first six months of this year.

China aviation industry surpassed Germany to become the second largest after the United States last year.

In 2005, the turnover of China's aviation transportation amounted to about 25.8 billion ton-kilometers, up 12 percent over that of 2004.