China surpassed Germany to be the second-biggest air transport market last year, after the United States, the International Civil Aviation Organization said in its latest report.

China's scheduled airlines achieved a total traffic turnover of 25.8 billion ton kilometers last year, a rise of 12 percent from 2004, ICAO said.

The report didn't include airlines based in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.

Traffic turnover for Chinese carriers totaled 8.4 billion ton kilometers on international routes last year, a jump of 9.2 percent from the previous year, ICAO said.

The Chinese airlines ranked No. 10 in international transport.

China's passenger turnover edged up to No. 2 in the world from No. 3 the previous year.

Total passenger turnover hit 202 billion passenger kilometers, up 14.6 percent year on year.

But freight traffic turnover slipped to No. 4 last year from No. 3 in 2004, the report said.

Chinese airliners completed 7.6 billion ton kilometers of cargo traffic turnover last year, a year-on-year increase of 7.9 percent.

China's 12 airlines, including three private carriers, flew 35.13 million passengers during the first quarter of this year, up 20 percent from the same period last year.

They also carried 749,000 tons of cargo in the three months, up 12.5 percent, said the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China. 

(Shanghai Daily June 3, 2006)