BEIJING - Flight delays from Chinese airports were reduced last year, despite an increase in flight numbers, data showed.

Data from air traffic management revealed that 77.9 percent of scheduled flights were on time last year, a 2-percentage-point improvement from 2010.

Flights between Beijing and Guangzhou were the worst in terms of punctuality, at 66 percent, followed by flights between Beijing and Shanghai at 73 percent, said an official with the Air Traffic Management Bureau under the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The official declined to give his name.