In 2005, the total turnover of scheduled flights of Chinese airlines rose to 25.7 billion ton/ kilometer, up by 12 percent over the previous year. That pushed China's ranking up from the third to the second, following the USA and outstripping Germany, according to the report by China Securities Journal.

The figure does not include China's Hong Kong, increasing by 13 percent to 14.6 billion ton/ kilometers, Macao, growning by 28 percent to 410 million ton/ kilometer, and Taiwan.

But it still lags behind the US where carriers recorded 5 percent growth in turnover to 152 billion ton/kilometer, 3.7 times as much as that of Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao combined.

The turnover of the international routes climbed by 9.2 percent to 8,387 million ton/kilometer, still keeping the tenth in the world.

By People's Daily Online