China's airlines carried 3.71 million passengers during this year's week-long Spring Festival holiday, up 21 percent year on year, according to preliminary estimate by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

The number of airline flights reached 29,302 during the seven days from Feb. 18 to Feb. 24, up 14.2 percent over the corresponding period of last year.

On Feb. 22, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, 500,000 people traveled by air. The figure soared to 620,000 on Feb. 24, the last day of the statutory holiday.

The 40-day Spring Festival travel peak began on Feb. 3, 15 days before the Lunar New Year's Day, and will end on March 14.