2011-01-12 10:00

BEIJING - China's civil aviation industry boomed last year as increasing air travel drove profits to 43.7 billion yuan, a senior Chinese aviation official said Tuesday.

The profits were sharply up from 12.2 billion yuan in 2009.

Wang Changshun, deputy director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), attributed the surge to increasing passenger demand as 267 million Chinese traveled by air last year, up 15.8 percent year-on-year.

Profits of the country's airline companies stood at 35.1 billion yuan last year while profits of airports nationwide exceeded 5 billion yuan,  said Wang at a work conference.

Business revenue of the sector reached 411.5 billion yuan, up 37.2 percent.

Wang said passenger volume last year at Beijing Capital International Airport surpassed 70 million, the second highest in the world.