Passengers wait in a line for check-in at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport on Jan 8, 2023. (PHOTO / VCG)

China's civil aviation sector is recovering from the effects of COVID-19, with the number of flights returning to about 96 percent of their level before the pandemic began, an official from the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Tuesday.

Last month, the sector handled 50.27 million passenger trips, a year-on-year increase of 94.6 percent, with the volume of domestic passenger trips increasing by 3.4 percent compared to 2019, Li Yong, deputy director of the administration's safety office, told a news conference in Beijing.

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The amount of cargo and mail handled by the civil aviation sector remained stable, registering 545,000 metric tons last month, a year-on-year increase of 29.5 percent, and about 90.6 percent of the amount handled during the same period in 2019.