More Chinese travel by plane

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 ◆ More Chinese travel by plane

Despite severe plane crashes, 39.8 million Chinese traveled by air during the first half of this year,up 14.4 percent over the same period in 2001, according to China's General Administration of Civil Aviation.

Figures for the first half year also show that profits of major aviation players hit 47.28 billion yuan (about 5.91 billion US dollars), up 6.9 percent over the same period last year.

The airline industry's deficit fell by 0.82 billion yuan (about0.1 billion US dollars).

Traffic turnover reached 7.54 billion ton kilometers, up 13.9 percent over last year.
Strong demand on international routes was the main reason for the profit increase, resulting a net income of 1.12 billion yuan (about 0.14 billion US dollars), although the number of passengers on domestic routes also had also risen rapidly, an aviation official said.