A CHINA Southern Airlines plane caught fire yesterday when loading luggage in Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, just one day after a scare involving another of the carrier's planes in Xi'an.

No one was injured in either accident, occurring amid an industry-wide campaign to heighten air safety after last month's crash of a Henan Airlines plane in Yichun, killing 42 people.

Ground handling staff yesterday found the rear cargo hold of the Airbus321 jet was smoking when they loaded luggage before departure around 8am, according to a spokesman of China Southern Airlines.

Initial findings showed the fire was caused by flammable goods in the cargo hold. Passengers, who were set to fly to Qingdao City in eastern China's Shandong Province, were put on other planes, according to Xinhua news agency.

"Firefighters carried out emergency measures to extinguish the fire, and the case is still under investigation," the spokesman said.

It was the company's second incident in less than 24 hours. On Sunday, smoke rose from a set of tires when an MD90 plane carrying more than 100 passengers landed at Xianyang International Airport in Xi'an in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province.

Passengers left the plane without incident and a fire crew used liquid nitrogen to cool the smoking tires, an airline official said.

He said that the smoke was caused by an oil leak in one of the tires and heat in the wheel hub.

The country's civil aviation regulators are conducting wide-ranging safety checks on domestic carriers after last month's air crash, the deadliest commercial plane disaster in China since 2004.

On August 24, a Brazilian-made ERJ-190 jet operated by Henan Airlines crashed upon landing at Lindu Airport in Yichun City in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, killing 42 people and injuring 54.