Also expanding passenger business fast, although from a much lower base, are India's New Delhi and Mumbai, gateways to Asia's other burgeoning trade power, figures released by ACI, the Geneva-based Airports Council International, showed.

While Atlanta in the United States remained the busiest world airport for passengers with a total of nearly 85 million, its figures were down 1.2 percent on 2005.

Memphis, U.S. hub for major air cargo services, remained the top freight airport, processing nearly 3.7 million tonnes, but this was just 2.6 percent more than in 2005.

Beijing, which next year hosts the Olympic Games, saw an 18.3 percent climb in travellers passing through to a total of 48.5 million, making it the globe's ninth busiest airport, six places up from 2005.

In freight handled, Beijing also saw whopping growth of 31.6 percent, making it the 20th busiest world cargo airport, while Shanghai, China's top business city, climbed from ninth to sixth place, with freight figures up by 16.3 percent.

Overall, ACI said, global passenger traffic through domestic and international airports increased by five percent last year over 2005, and cargo was up by nearly 4 percent -- figures in line with similar returns from the airlines body IATA.

The Asia-Pacific region as a whole saw the biggest growth in passengers, up 10.3 percent, against 6.4 percent in Europe and only 0.7 percent in North America. The region also led in real terms in cargo, with growth of 7.2 percent.

Apart from Beijing, only two of the top 10 passenger airports recorded significant increases in travellers -- Paris in seventh position with nearly 59 million for an increase of 5.6 percent, and Denver, 10th, with 47.3 million, up 9.1 percent.

Apart from Shanghai, six more of the top 10 cargo airports in 2006 are heavily involved in Asian markets and five of these saw good or very good growth, ranging from 8.7 by Seoul through 5.9 percent by Anchorage to 5.1 percent by Hong Kong.

Tokyo's Narita in fifth position was an exception, with a drop in cargo volume of 0.5 percent. However, other top international cargo airports saw good growth -- 9.3 percent at Louisville and 8.4 percent at Frankfurt, ACI reported.