China Southern Airlines had the third largest number of passengers in the world in 2009, only behind American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, the Chinese airline said Saturday.

It flew a total of 66.28 million passengers in 2009, ranking the third in the latest World Air Transport Statistics by the International Air Travel Association (IATA), a spokesman for the Guangzhou-based airline said.

China Southern ranked fourth in the IATA world charts in 2008. The company attributed its advance in 2009 to rebounding domestic demand.

To date, China Southern has 392 planes, forming Asia's biggest fleet.

Focusing on domestic services in China, the airline posted a net profit of 1.419 billion yuan (US$207.7 million) in the first quarter this year. It swung back to a net profit of 358 million yuan (US$52.49 million) in 2009 after a loss of 4.8 billion yuan (US$702.8 million) in 2008.

China Eastern Airlines is another Chinese airline giant among the IATA's top ten largest carriers by passenger numbers, together with United Airlines, Lufthansa, US Airways, Air France, Continental Airlines and All Nippon Airways.

China Eastern ranked the ninth in the IATA charts.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2010)