BEIJING, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- Passengers carried by Chinese airlines rose 16.7 percent over the same period last year to 86.7 million in the first half of 2007, the civil aviation regulator said here Saturday.

Among the total, domestic passengers increased by 16.2 percent to 78.8 million while international passengers reached 7.9 million, up 21.8 percent, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).

Cargo traffic carried by Chinese airlines rose 15.3 percent to 1.83 million tons with domestic cargo growing by 11.3 percent to 1.32 million tons and that for international routes of 508,000 tons, up 27.2 percent.

During the period, revenues generated by China's civil aviation sector rose 18.3 percent to 121.8 billion yuan while the the sector also turned profitable in the first half with net profit reaching 4.62 billion yuan, up 4.97 billion yuan from the same period last year.

Combined revenue generated by the country's airlines hit 85.96 billion yuan, up 19 percent, while the net profit of the airlines reached 1.54 billion yuan, up 3.93 billion yuan from the corresponding period last year, the CAAC said.

Registered airplanes in the civil aviation sector in China totaled 1,054 at the end of June, an increase of 56 over six months ago, the CAAC said.