Every now and again it is a good thing to step back, take a deep breath and see the situation in a quick snapshot. Looking at air travel in China:

A new airport will be built in Beijing and scheduled to open by 2015. Even with a third terminal opening at Capital International Airport opening next month, Beijing will need a new airport as Capital with its third terminal will probably be as big as it can be and still be manageable.
97 new airports will be built by 2020.
Total airline passenger traffic in China rose to 185.19 million in the year 2007, up 16%. Cargo traffic increased 13% to 3.95 mln metric tons.
Takeoff and landing fees will drop 40% for foreign carriers and 20% for domestic carriers from March 1 this year. Currently, foreign carriers pay about twice as much as their Chinese counterparts in airport fees.
Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines has signed an order for 30 single-aisle 737s from Boeing Co. for about $1.94 billion. Delivery of the new planes is scheduled between July 2011 and November 2015
Air France has acquired a 25% stake of China Southern’s catering unit through Servair, its inflight catering unit.
China Air still seems keen on getting China Eastern. China Eastern still appears to be keen on this not happening.

Source: Shangaiist

The China Daily — so you can take it as official — reports China has ordered domestic airlines to reduce delays and improve service around August’s Beijing Olympics or face penalties.

Among other possible penalties one that could really hurt is that airlines that fail to improve performance could be barred from expanding services for two years. Scrutiny will be intensified from July to September nd airlines have fair warning of what is expected.

It is, in truth, asking an awful lot.

China’s airlines and airports have struggled with soaring demand for passenger and cargo services amid the country’s economic boom. Despite increases in airline fleets and new airports, air traffic corridors have become clogged around major cities and hubs.

The situation is not helped by the fact that total control of the air rests with the PLA which, perhaps understandably, has a tendency to regard the skies as being an arena in which they allow domestic airlines to operate. And sometimes, quite arbitarily, can withdraw that permission for a period of time which can range from minutes to even more than a day.

Then there are the airports.

Beijing’s overcrowded airport, the world’s 9th busiest, will open a new US$4.6 billion terminal and runway this year to cope with the demand. And, in truth, it will only just be enough for the Olympics.

The Civil Aviation Administration has ordered airlines to stop overbooking flights and keep one or two planes on standby at six key airports in case of delays. Which means, practically be definition, that the airlines are going have to turn customers away. Which will be very difficult.

To make it even more difficult the aviation regulator has also extended a penalty measure introduced last year allowing it to cancel flights that are regularly delayed.

It looks like being a difficult summer for the airlines.
Source: Canadian Press

China is upgrading several standby airports near Beijing for next year’s Olympics by renovating terminals, enlarging tarmacs, lengthening runways and improving services.

At Zhengding Airport, seen in our illustration, about 30 kilometers northeast of Shijiazhuang, capital of north China’s Hebei Province the air traffic control building has been extended and the terminal building doubled in size and renovated.

Earlier this year, workers enlarged the Zhengding tarmac by 35,000 square meters and built two new taxiways. The new, improved terminal will be able to handle 2.3 million passengers annually.

Zhengding is one of three standby airports for the Beijing Capital International Airport during the Olympic Games when the volume is expected to reach up to 1,500 flights daily.

Since the beginning of last year, an RMB1.5 billion renovation has been going on at Wusu International Airport about 15 km south of Taiyuan, capital of north China’s Shanxi Province.

There will be a new terminal building with a floor space of 55,000 square meters as well as the renovated original terminal. When it is all completed, the airport is expected to handle 6 million passengers annually.

In addition, the airport runway will be stretched from its current 3,200 meters to 3,600 meters to accommodate alternate landings for the Airbus A380, the world’s largest aircraft.

The Baita International Airport, about 10 kilometers east of Hohhot, capital of north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, has had a major renovation.

The two year, RMB1.5 billion project has a new terminal building with a floor space of 55,000 square meters that can handle 3 million passengers annually.

Workers have also built a new tarmac covering 374,000 square meters and doubled the aircraft parking bays to 32.
Source: People’s Daily Online

The civil aviation regulator said it will soon launch policies to subsidize largely loss-making small and medium-sized airports as well as short-hop air services.

Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) said in a statement on its website that subsidies for airports will be provided mainly to those with annual passenger traffic of less than 5 million people, and those located in remote, underdeveloped regions.

More than 80% of the country’s airports are eligible for the subsidies, with subsidy levels dependent on each airport’s size and location.

Short-hop air routes with passenger load factors lower than 80 per centwill also be subsidized. It did not provide a timetable for the new rules.

The civil aviation regulator added that the state council, China’s cabinet, has approved its proposal to continue an airport construction levy until 2010. Passengers are currently levied RMB50 as airport construction fees for each domestic flight, RMB10 for domestic regional routes and RMB90 for international routes.

The illustration is of Xining airport, Tibet. That is a small airport by any definition.

A total of 336 domestic flights to and from Beijing will be scrapped from August 15 to October 27. This is because of the poor on time performance due, mainly, to a shortage of technicians and other professionals and the limited capacity of domestic airports. It will lower the number of peak hour flights from more than 60 to 58 per hour.

In a second phase of cuts, from November to March, the number of peak hour flights at Beijing will fall to 55 per hour.

According to the CAAC, most flights to be canceled are operated by the nation’s three leading carriers: Air China, China Southern and China Eastern.

Airlines had been warned over almost 120 flights since the CAAC launched a campaign in June to reduce delays at Beijing airport. The CAAC named the 20 most-delayed flights every 10 days. Flights were cancelled after two warnings.

The campaign should prevent long delays next August when Beijing hosts the 2008 Olympic Games.

The CAAC saw the flight cuts as concrete steps to cool the overheating development of air transport. Sources said 18 airports, including Beijing, Shanghai Hongqiao, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Dalian and Urumqi, had been operating at their maximum capacity.

China’s air transport is growing at an average annual rate of more than 16%. Beijing handled 26 million passengers in the first half of 2007, and the number for the whole year will far exceed its designed annual capacity of 35 million passengers.
Source: People’s Daily Online