Chinese regulators are to submit proposals to reform management of the country’s airspace by the end of this month in a bid to ease flight delays and boost aviation growth, one of the country’s top air traffic control officials said yesterday.
The plan aims to eventually integrate civil and military management of China’s airspace, and improve the country’s flight route network, Chinese Air Traffic Control Commission Deputy Director Cai Jun told a forum in Beijing.
He said airspace congestion was becoming particularly severe around Beijing and the Pearl River Delta, requiring governance systems and capabilities to be modernized.
“We understand that reforming the management of the airspace ... is an essential need,” said Cai, whose commission is overseen by China’s State Council and Central Military Commission.
“Pushing ahead with civil and military integration is an important measure, and a requirement that will help us adjust to the global air traffic management system and accelerate China’s transformation into an aviation power,” Cai said.
China is set to overtake the US as the world’s largest aviation market by 2024, but airlines and travelers often complain that the military can unilaterally cancel or delay commercial flights for reasons such as military exercises.
Local media estimate the military might control up to four-fifths of China’s airspace.
The state-run China Daily newspaper in January said that China’s flight delays averaged at 33 minutes last year and that the country’s biggest airports in Shanghai and Beijing faced the worst delays.
Cai said the reforms aim to integrate civil and military management to improve decisionmaking, and could adopt airspace classification methods used by the International Civil Aviation Organization, an agency overseen by the UN.
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