China's airline industry is likely to see faster profit growth this year as global fuel prices stabilise, offsetting slower passenger traffic, analysts said.

Last year, record-high jet fuel prices dented earnings, but this year things are beginning to look promising.

Domestic passenger traffic in the mainland, the world's third largest aviation market after the European Union and the United States, is poised to grow 11 per cent this year, analysts said. That compares with 14 per cent growth in the past decade. The slowdown is due to a maturing market and competition from high-speed rail. International traffic is less affected.

"The increase in passenger air travel demand has a high correlation with gross domestic product (GDP) growth historically, so demand may follow the GDP's slow climb this year," Kelvin Lau, an analyst at Daiwa Securities Group Inc, told the Hong Kong Economic Journal's EJ Insight.