RISING tourist numbers propelled Chinese airlines to an annual 9.8 percent increase in passenger traffic during the first half of this year.

Although domestic carriers flew 139 million passengers from January to June, a 9.8 percent increase, cargo figures dipped 0.4 percent, to 2.66 million tons over the same period, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said.

The passenger growth came as 1.33 billion Chinese residents made domestic trips during the six-month period, rising 13 percent annually, and generating 920 billion yuan (US$141.5 billion) in revenue, according to the National Tourism Administration of China.

Yesterday's figures came as a ray of hope at a time when airlines face an uncertain business environment.

"The trend of global air transport demand has been hard to assess in recent months as shocks in Japan and Middle East and North Africa added to the normal volatility. Global air travel and freight trends now looks to be rising at an annual pace of 4 percent a year in both," said the International Air Transport Association yesterday.

"Air travel markets are well above pre-recession peaks, although the trend rate of improvement has slowed since the fourth quarter of 2010. Air freight markets have shown disappointingly little progress over the past year, but now seem to be growing once more," it added.

Sixty new airplanes were added to the domestic market during the period.