China's airlines carried 20 million passengers during this year's 40-day Spring Festival, up 13 percent year on year, said sources with the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on March 14.

The number of people traveling by air rose 21 percent to 3.71 million during the week-long Spring Festival holiday that ran from Feb. 18 to Feb. 24.

On Feb. 22, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, 519,000 people traveled by air. The figure soared to 620,000 on Feb. 24, the last day of the statutory holiday.

The 40-day Spring Festival travel peak began on Feb. 3, 15 days before the Lunar New Year's Day, and ended on March 14.