Air China said it carried 2.99 mln passengers in May, up 16.8 pct from a year earlier.

For the first five months of 2007, the Beijing-based airline saw passenger numbers increase 14.8 pct year-on-year to 13.8 mln.

Its passenger load factor in May was 75.8 pct, up 1.7 percentage points from a year earlier.

For the first five months, Air China's passenger load factor was 75.5 pct, up 2.1 percentage points.

The airline carried 2.4 mln passengers on domestic flights in May, up 17.5 pct, while 499,500 passengers travelled on international flights, up 15.7 pct.

On regional flights to Hong Kong and Macau there were 82,500 passengers in May, up 4.9 pct.

Air China also said it carried 76,767 tons of cargo in May, up 21.9 pct.

For the first five months it carried 375,973 tons of cargo, up 17.8 pct.

The cargo load factor in May was 53.2 pct, up 1.2 percentage points, while for the first five months it was 51.9 pct, down 2.4 percentage points.