News
China Southern chairman: ATC and airspace restrictions curtail civil aviation growth in China
March 10th 2017
China Southern Airlines chairman, Wang Changshun, this week said China’s tight air traffic control (ATC) and airspace restrictions “are holding back civil aviation development and cause flight delays”. Read More » Wang, who is a deputy to the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, as well as chair of Air China’s board, said some flight paths were designed in the 1950 and 1960s,
Wang said a direct routing between two Mainland airports might only be 1,000kms, but ATC and airspace restrictions often added up to 500kms in detours to the journey, which was a drag on airline balance sheets and the environment and a major reason for passenger discontent and air rage.
Beijing often closes large sections of airspace as it gives priority to the People’s Liberation Army. Another antiquated rules required aircraft to have a minimum altitude of 10,000 feet when they cross from Mainland into Hong Kong airspace and vice versa.
China’s on-time performance rate improved 8.4% in 2016 to 76.4%, but remains poor compared with global airline on time performance.
"I was not happy with the punctuality rate of scheduled flights before, nor am I am happy with it now. We are working to improve it," said Feng Zhenglin, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
Chairman Wang’s party airline comrade, China Southern Xinjiang branch president Fu Puyan, said airspace restrictions thwart the airline’s Xinjiang operations. "Currently, aircraft departing from southern Xinjiang's Kashgar City, a key transportation hub on the economic belt, have to fly southward before heading west to some Central Asian countries, which adds more than an hour to the flight time," he said.
Beijing and the CAAC have a lot of homework to do, but they remain committed. In its latest five-year plan, they have outlined 74 new civilian airports by 2020.
