BEIJING — China's air cargo transport rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels in January, official data showed on Feb 16.

The volume of cargo and mail transported by air was approximately 654,000 tons in January, or 97.3 percent of the amount recorded in the same period in 2019, according to a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) press conference.

The degree of recovery expanded 6.6 percentage points from December 2021, the administration said.

The January volume was a 1.1 percent increase from a month ago, but a 2.3 percent drop from the same period last year.

CAAC data also shows that the civil aviation industry handled 29.51 million passenger trips last month, down 2.2 percent year-on-year.