Accessible regional aviation to benefit China
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E-mail Xinhua, March 8, 2012
Highways, railways and high-speed railways -- China is amazing the world by speeding up its communication map, and now is the right time for making regional aviation more accessible to more Chinese, said a senior official with the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (COMAC).
"It is impractical to modify air travel as a luxury mode of transportation for common people in China, which is a vast country with booming social and economic needs," said Wu Guanghui, deputy general manager of COMAC.
The chief designer of the C919, China's first homegrown single-aisle passenger jet, Wu is also a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee, and is attending the annual session of the country's top political advisory body in Beijing.
He is also the former chief designer of the ARJ21, China's first homegrown commercial regional aircraft which is currently undergoing the certification flying test.
He said he has suggested that the central government should issue preferential policies to support small-medium cites in building regional airports in accordance with practical need.
In fact, China's booming trunk route airlines and saturated major airports can not meet the needs of both the commercial and civil aviation sectors.
Jam-packed runways and stranded passengers, which are flooding in from various nearby regions, are a curious scene in China.
Leaping into place as the world's second-largest economy, China has the world's second-largest aviation carrier volume, following the U.S.
However, the amount is mostly from aviation services among major and developed coastal cities, said Wu.
Statistics show that, by the end of 2011, there were 2,006 regional aircraft in the U.S., making up about 32 percent of its total commercial aircraft fleet of about 4,100.
While in China, there were only about 144 regional jets, less than 10 percent of the country's 1,510-strong commercial carrier fleet.
It is such a limited figure for such a quickly developing nation, with over 2,000 small-medium cites scattered across its vast territory, said Wu.
"The extremely short supply of regional aircraft services is now dragging behind the country's target of balanced economic development," he added.
Regional aircraft service is the quickest, most economical transportation mode between remote cities, especially those scattered among China's vast western and inland regions, he said, adding that those regions still remain inaccessible via the high-speed railway network due to high costs and less concentrated passenger flow.
As the economic hub and labor exporting province of southwest China, Sichuan has already stepped forward to extend the layout of its network of airports.
It will build a second terminal in Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, which boasts the country's fourth-largest passenger throughput.
In 2012, Sichuan will expand three regional airports and build another three new regional airports, bringing the total number of civil aviation airports to 14. The figure is expected to reach 17 by 2020.
"Aiming to attract more domestic and foreign investment, Chengdu will start constructing its first fixed base operator in October to serve the booming need for commercial and private aircraft," said He Bisheng, deputy director of the Sichuan Airport Group Company.
Meanwhile, a regional airport, located in Daocheng Yading in Daocheng county of Sichuan's Garze Tibetan autonomous prefecture, has recently been approved and will be the world's highest tourism airport at an elevation of 4,410 meters.
"After it begins operating in 2013, aviation services will cover the Shangrila tourism circle by linking regional airports in its nearby regions," said He.
In addition to infrastructure construction, Wu suggested the central government should also subsidize small- and medium-sized airports to facilitate their initial development and offer them necessary airspace and air routes.
The Chinese government said in its 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), it would promote the general aviation industry's development, reform the airspace management system, and increase the efficiency of the allocation and utilization of airspace resources.
By 2015, China will also carry out a nationwide reform on low-airspace control and management, draw up a set of management and supervision policies, and create new industry standards.
The regional aviation and general aviation sectors will both greatly ease the pressure on major airports, and optimize the economic and human resources allocation for boosting China's non-major regions, Wu said.
"A closely-connected and coordinated aviation network is called for in China. And it is a great chance for both the country and the world," he said, adding it would also cut costs for average people travelling by air.
Nevertheless, excessive growth in some fields is also considered the root of most of the dilemmas and problems that China currently faces, such as safety concerns in the country's high-speed railway and aviation services, said Zhuang Jian, a senior economist with Asian Development Bank.
"A well-planned and coordinated major communication network connected by road, water and air routes will contribute more to China's development," Zhuang said that, "However, it is a long way to run."
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