BEIJING - Air passengers will have made 290 million trips in China this year, up 8.2 percent from last year, an aviation official said Monday.

Li Jun, deputy chief of Civil Aviation Administration of China, said here at a national civil aviation conference that China's aviation industry has witnessed a surge in passenger volume this year, with total air freight volume also expected to rise 6.6 percent year-on-year to 57.4 billion tonnes/kilometers this year.

Supported by the steady growth in passenger volume, China's aviation industry is expected to see a 5.1 percent growth in net profit to 45.6 billion yuan ($7.18 billion) this year, offsetting rising fuel costs and the grim global market condition, Li said.

A total of 76.5 percent of scheduled flights in China have been on time in the first eleven months of this year, up 1.9 percentage points from the same period last year, Li added.

Regulators will continue to improve flight punctuality and strive to increase the rate by 2 percentage points in the coming year, he said.

The CAAC expects air passenger volume to continue to grow by 10.3 percent to top 320 million next year, with air cargo volume up 10.1 percent to 63.2 billion tonnes/kilometers, Li said.