The View | Chinese airlines are consistently late for this one surprising reason
Freeing up more airspace for civilian uses would help lower costs without damaging China’s national security
No one likes an autocrat, but if there has to be one, can’t we make the best of it? Here’s hoping President Xi Jinping sorts out the airspace issue in China.
Flights to and from the Chinese mainland are frequently and frustratingly delayed, and this is apparently because the People’s Liberation Army controls the skies, leaving commercial airlines to jostle over the slender remaining flight paths. Someone needs to change this situation.
A report in this newspaper said that when compared with international peers, Chinese cities ranked near the bottom for on-time departures of scheduled flights. Air traffic control issues are the number-one reason for flight delays, above weather, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Who knows how much such delays cost the country in lost time, money, productivity and airline profits. Plus, they anger the people. Brawls break out all the time at Chinese airports, and Hong Kong gets its share of the tension as well.
Last week a group of sleep-deprived mainland pensioners were stuck for hours in Hong Kong’s airport, as carriers kept them nearby in case a departure window opened up. “My biggest birthday wish is to leave now,” said another passenger, who had gone abroad to celebrate his 50th birthday.
One of the reasons cited for those delays? Military drills around Shanghai.