Chinese customs officers are on the lookout for smugglers of endangered species, hazardous waste and ozone depleting substances. A workshop at the Shanghai Customs College aims to train the trainers from regional customs agencies. The training emphasizes cooperation that is expected to become a lasting partnership between China customs officials and the other partners.

Currently China Customs operates at 253 first-class ports — including airports, sea ports and land passes — approved by the central government and around 200 second-class ports approved by provincial governments.

China has a land border 22,000 kilometers long and a sea border of 18,000 kilometers.

A wide range of chemicals, including persistent organic pollutants and chemicals that deplete the ozone layer, are now controlled, banned or subject to phase-outs under multilateral environmental agreements.

In June 2003 when UNEP and the World Customs Organization signed an agreement to foster stronger ties between the two organizations on environmental enforcement issues.

The initiative focuses on training border guards and the training is begining to show results.

China Customs seized nearly 8.2 metric tons of dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC-12), an ozone depleting substance used in refrigerant and air conditioning systems, between September 1 and November 30, 2006. The seizures were made in Guandong Province - 752 kilograms in Shengzhen and 7.5 metric tons at Huanpu Port.

Meanwhile treaties such as the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, cover trade in wildlife.

Between 1999 and 2005, Chinese customs officers seized 80 tiger skins and 31 skeletons, 744 leopard skins and six skeletons, and 19 snow leopard skins and one skeleton, according to a 2006 report published on the website of the China CITES Management Authority.
Source: Environment News Service

The shareholders of China Southern Airlines sits shareholders have approved long-delayed reforms to its shareholding structure.

The company will offer public shareholders warrants equivalent to 1.6-for-10 bonus shares and promised that its cash dividend to all shareholders would be no less than 50% of its annual net attributable from 2007 to 2009.

The company did not say when the reforms would take effect but companies usually implement the reforms within one month after approval.

China Southern Air,the country’s largest airline by fleet size, missed a January deadline for adopting rules to make its state-held shares tradeable on the market, subjecting it to trading restrictions on the Chinese stock market.

The company said at the time that government restrictions requiring state control of key companies made it unable to reduce the state-owned shareholding, and that its parent lacked sufficient cash and other resources to compensate public shareholders for any resulting dilution to existing shares that would occur if state-owned shares became tradeable.

Regulators had set the end of 2006 as an informal deadline for companies to launch the reform, which commonly involves compensating public shareholders with bonus shares or cash for the dilution of their stakes.

China Southern reported a net loss of RMB188 million ($24.5 million) for the first quarter, down from a RMB603 million loss a year earlier, after having just edged into the black for 2006.
Source: Reuters

This is very important. Very safe. Easy to understand. China will reduce the vertical air space between aircraft starting from November 22. In doing this it is breaking no new ground, taking no undue risks, not breaking any barriers. The Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum, we will call it RVSM, it shortens the vertical space between aircraft from 2,000 feet (610 meters) to 1,000 feet (305 meters.)

First, is it safe? Yes. It is in use most places in the world and is fine provided all instruments have been checked to a fairly high level. If this is done then it makes not difference to safety. But it makes an immense difference to the available flying space, effectively doubling it.

Wang Changshun, CAAC’s deputy director, said, ‘We can make better use of the airspace, increase air traffic flow and reduce flight delays. It is good news for travelers who will have to spend less time sitting in cabins waiting for the aircraft to take off.’

Last year, flight delays topped the passengers’ complaint list. Air traffic control was a major reason for the delays.

CAAC has been under pressure to make better use of the limited airspace, as the aircraft fleet keeps expanding. RVSM, which the International Civil Aviation Organization introduced in the 1970s, is used in Europe, North America, the Pacific, the Atlantic, Japan and Republic of Korea.

CAAC carried out a pilot project in Sanya, South China’s Hainan Province in 2002, and has now decided to apply it nationwide in November, about eight months ahead of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Local airlines will have to equip their aircraft with specially certified altimeters and autopilots before October 1.
Source: China Daily

American airlines squeal like stuck pigs at apparently unfair competition from the European carriers and positively demand open access to China so that it will be a flat playing field. They claim some airlines are subsidized by the governments. They suggest that other countries are frightened of fair competition.

Oddly they never mention the anomaly of Chapter 11. And yet this is central to the way they operate. Four of the top seven U.S. airlines filed for Chapter 11 protection in the post-9/11 crisis.

With Chapter 11 you sort of enter bankruptcy. Sort of, because the airlines cannot be dunned for the money they owe but can still continue operating.

Then, when the situation improves, you seek approval to emerge from bankruptcy. Meanwhile, hiding behind court protection you have kept operating and seriously cut costs.

That this is blatantly unfair competition is well known but it keeps the American airlines flying.

Now Northwest will emerge from Chapter 11 where it ducked for shelter in late 2005 on the same day as Atlanta-based Delta. And, in an odd coincidence, Delta left the bankruptcy court three weeks ago.

Once a company emerges from court protection, its shares begin trading again.

‘They’re going to be in a very strong position,’ airline industry consultant Mike Boyd said. ‘They have a strong vision of what they want to do. If you’re going to bet on an airline, I’d bet on them.’ He notes that Northwest will be able to build its growth around a global hub in Detroit for access to China.

Understand these are the airlines of the United States who have been complaining bitterly about the no-fair policies of other countries, China being one.

It is like murdering your parents and then throwing yourself on the mercy of the court because you are an orphan.

In coming out of bankruptcy Northwest will be offering Chief Executive Doug Steenland $26.6 million in stock and options once the company emerges. It also gives the outgoing chairman, Gary Wilson, $2 million as well as medical and dental insurance for life and up to $75,000 a year to keep an office.

Soon they will be flying to China. Easy to spot. They are the ones with the hungry looking cabin crew.
Source: AjC

China’s aviation authorities have promised to make greater efforts during this summer’s thunderstorm season (or, indeed, at any other time) to ease air travel delays. This will be a good thing as, in the past, there have been serious confrontations at airports between irate travelers and airline staff.

The civil aviation administration said on its Web site that China’s main air traffic control centre has installed new equipment that will be able to alert the main airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou up to 48 hours in advance of storms. This should help airlines rejig their flights and, perhaps, warn passengers. Off-hand, the number of times an airline has called passengers to tell them their planes will be late because of the weather can be counted on one hand. Unlikely to see that changing.

A far, far better option is the one where the authorities improve coordination with the military, which controls almost all of China’s airways, to open temporary routes around storms and ‘reduce the effect on regular flight operations’.

Chinese airports regularly shut down during rain storms, delaying flights for hours and stranding thousands of passengers.
Source: China Daily