BEIJING, March 16 -- Chinese airlines carried almost 49.2 million passengers during the 40-day Spring Festival travel period, known as chunyun, which concluded Sunday.

This is a 11.7 percent rise over the corresponding period last year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said on Monday.

To cope with the rising number of passengers, airlines also launched 360,000 flights during the period, up 9.3 percent.

The megacities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen saw the most passengers during the first half of chunyun while airports in the southwest and northeast regions were busiest toward the end of the 40-day period.