China Southern Airlines Co and the nation's other carriers flew 15 percent more passengers during last week's national holidays after the Beijing Olympics and natural disasters curbed travel earlier in the year.

Airlines flew 4.33 million passengers from September 29 to Sunday, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said yesterday.

Travel in China has increased since September 21, after the easing of controls to curb pollution and delays during the Beijing Olympics and Paralympics, the regulator said. Passenger numbers rose 1.8 percent in the first eight months, compared with a 16 percent increase for the whole of last year, as snowstorms and an earthquake disrupted airline operations, Bloomberg News reported.

Chinese carriers flew 8 percent more flights during the holidays than a year earlier, the regulator said. The passenger load factor, or the percentage of available seats filled with customers, climbed by 4 percentage points from a year earlier to 76.7 percent.

Chinese trains moved 53.8 million travelers during the holiday, up 8.9 percent.

(Shanghai Daily October 7, 2008)