Profit in China's aviation industry more than tripled in the first three quarters of the year, helped by robust consumer demand and new accounting rules, the industry regulator and analysts said on Dec. 11.

The sector booked a 13.72 billion yuan (US$1.86 billion) profit in the January-to-September period, up from 4.38 billion yuan a year earlier, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) said in a statement on its Web site (www.caac.gov.cn).

It did not say what kind of profit it was.

Sales rose 16.8 percent to 195.4 billion yuan, the regulator added.

In the third quarter alone, profit jumped two-thirds to 9.1 billion yuan, with sales up 12.5 percent to 73.57 billion yuan, it said, also without specifying the nature of the profit.

Industry analysts attributed the improved profitability mostly to new accounting rules -- implemented in the beginning of the year -- which helped local carriers such as China Eastern Airlines Corp back into the black.

China Eastern, which has signed an initial agreement to sell a stake to Singapore Airlines Ltd, posted 1.03 billion yuan in net profit in the first three quarters, versus a 843.71 million yuan net loss a year earlier.

From January to September, Chinese airlines handled 51.91 million passengers, up 15.3 percent from a year earlier, with cargo volume up 11.5 percent to 1.05 million tonnes, the regulator said.

International passenger growth outpaced domestic growth, it added, without elaborating.

As of the end of September, Chinese airlines operated a combined fleet of 1,099 planes, 101 more than the end of 2006, it said.

The market's growth, on the back of an economic boom and rising incomes, has attracted attention not only from aircraft manufacturers Boeing Co and Airbus, a unit of EADS, but also foreign airline investors.

Yet despite billions of dollars spent to build new airports and upgrade old ones, delays are frequent as the infrastructure struggles to keep up. The military also maintains a tight grip on the nation's flight paths.

Reported delays improved only marginally in the third quarter, with about one-fifth of flights being affected by them, the regulator said.

But on a brighter note it said there were only seven passenger complaints against airports during that period and one carrier -- Shanghai Airlines Co Ltd -- had no complaints lodged against it.