Air Macao, the flagship airline in the special administrative region, was granted the certificate of the ISO9001:2000 on Thursday.

Fei Hongjun, general manager of the airline, said while addressing the granting ceremony that the certificate will add up to the confidence for the international air company to further enhance its service quality.

Handrik Homan, representative of the International Quality Certification Center, hailed Air Cacao for its great achievement in the service level.

"The ISO9001:2000 certificate is an internationally-recognized standard for high-quality services and Air Macao is now reigning on that standard," he said.

Air Macao, having launched the debut flight in 1995, is now running scores of international and domestic flights including those linking mainland tourist destinations of Guiyang and Hangzhou, which were opened earlier this year.

The airline handled 2.1 million passengers and 150,000 tons of airfreight in 2005, both hitting the record high, according to the statistics released earlier by the company.

(Xinhua News Agency May 19, 2006)