BEIJING, Oct.17 (Xinhua) -- China's civil aviation industry made profits of 9.1 billion yuan (about 1.33 billions U.S. dollars) in the first nine months of 2009, despite the punch by the financial crisis on the world's civil aviation industry, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) on Saturday.

Domestic air passenger traffic volume grew by 23.6 percent from a year earlier in first nine months of this year.

Performance of small airports, those that handle less than 1 million passengers annually, were most inspiring, said Li Jiaxiang, director with the CAAC, at the 2009 China International General Aviation Convention held in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Saturday.

Li said that passenger volume of small airports grew 26.7 percent year on year to 14.87 million in the first half.

He contributed the vibrant performance of small airports and regional air routes to the more balanced economic development of China's different regions in recent years, which was the result of the country's strategies to develop the relatively poor western and central regions and to revive the old industrial base in northeastern regions.

Besides, the fact that Chinese people are becoming richer and CAAC's policies carried out last year to subsidize small and medium-sized airports and regional air routes also helped the passenger volume rise of small airports, said Li.

By the end of 2008, China had 116 small airports, accounting for 73 percent of the total number of the country's airports.