BEIJING, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's aviation authorities announced on Tuesday that more passengers traveled by air during the Spring Festival holidays, with Chinese airlines handling some 5.07 million passengers during the period.

The number of passengers on flights during the Chinese Lunar New Year holidays, which ended Tuesday, was up 6 percent from the same period last year, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

On average, 72 percent of the seats on flights across the country were loaded during the holiday travel season, up 2 percentage points from the same period last year, according to the CAAC.

To prepare for the holiday travel surge, the CAAC arranged 38,992 flights during the holidays, including eight chartered flights to Egypt to fly home 1,796 Chinese travelers stranded amid massive protests in the African country.