China's civil aviation industry reported a profit of 4.62 billion yuan (about US$608 million) in the first half of this year, compared with a loss of 640 million yuan in the same period of 2006.

Statistics from China's General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) show that in the first six months airlines earned 1.54 billion yuan, airports won 2.11 billion yuan while other related enterprises got 970 million yuan.

The industry's revenues hit 121.83 billion yuan, up 18.3 percent year-on-year; its air transport turnover totaled 16.67 billion tons/km, up 19.5 percent, handling 86.699 million passengers and 1.82 million tons of cargo, up 16.7 percent and 15.2 percent, respectively.

The industry finished a fixed asset investment of 10.4 billion yuan, increasing three percent year-on-year.

A spokesman for the CAAC said that efforts will be made to cool down the overheated development of air transport, which includes stricter control on market entry, regulating transport capacity and developing international air routes.

(Xinhua News Agency July 14, 2007)