China Southern Airlines (CSA) expects passenger traffic of 60 million in 2007, an increase of 22 percent on the previous year, company sources said Wednesday.

CSA, which is listed on the New York, Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges, operates China's largest fleet of 307 aircraft.

The passenger traffic of 49 million in 2006 resulted in CSA being the only Chinese carrier to be listed in the world's top ten passenger airlines for 2006 by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

The source, a senior official with the CSA, attributed the jump to the dynamic domestic market and CSA's strategic reform.

CSA said in mid-May that the growth of its international routes outpaced domestic ones in 2006, with passenger traffic volume surging 13.9 percent year on year, higher than the 11.8 percent recorded by domestic air routes.

CSA president Liu Shao Yong has just been reappointed as a member of the IATA, becoming the first ever mainland Chinese airline chairman to be reappointed.

(Xinhua News Agency June 7, 2007)