(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-08 13:55

Chinese airlines carried a record number of people on a single day over the just ended week-long National Day holiday -- more than half a million passengers, the regulator said on Monday.

Related readings:  Holiday tourism reaps golden harvest  Retail sales reach 350b yuan in holiday  Visitors crowd tourist spots during holiday  Roads see 360m passengers during holiday

The record of 540,000 was set on September 30, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China said in a statement on its Web site (www.caac.gov.cn), the day most people headed off for the vacation that began on October 1.

Total passenger numbers during the period -- one of China's three "golden week" holidays -- climbed a quarter on the year-earlier period to 3.75 million people, though the number of flights operated rose just 6 percent, it said.

Yet flights departed fuller than last year, with 72 percent of seats filled as opposed to 65 percent the year before, the watchdog added.

Not only were flights to traditional tourist hot spots like Beijing, Shanghai and the southern resort island of Hainan popular, but secondary cities such as Yinchuan in the poor western region of Ningxia also saw large increases, it said.

China, hungrily eyed as a potentially vast market by Boeing Co and EADS-owned Airbus, has been adding large numbers of new aircraft to serve the booming economy and millions of newly affluent people who no longer want to take the train.

Chinese airlines are also attracting the attention of overseas investors, like Singapore Airlines and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways who hope to grab a slice of the growing pie.

Cathay has invested in Air China while Singapore Airlines and government-run Temasek Holdings this year proposed buying a combined 24 percent of China Eastern for $918 million.