The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has recently announced policy measures to control flight volume of major airports “in a bid to improve flight on-time rates”. Restructuring of flight schedules according to the plan will begin in the upcoming winter-spring flight season.
Under the policy measures, airports are required to strictly control on-time and capacity standards. In the winter-spring flight season, 21 targeted airports are required to coordinate flight schedules while maintaining current capacity. The non-coordinated flight time of the major airports will be abolished from then on, and a 24-hour flight-time coordination will be implemented instead, so as to enhance overall management of flight volume at those airports.
The airports that are allowed to adjust their capacity, according to the policy measures, must have no serious safety incidents linked to the airport or air traffic control within the last year, and maintained on-time rate of no less than 80% for at least 9 months of the year.
CAAC will adopt a result-oriented strategy in the optimization of departure flights by studying the normal rate of approval for take-off. To carry out the measures，Beijing Capital International Airport and Shanghai Pudong Airport will adjust the departure schedule and reduce the number of departures to just 75% of the airports’ capacity during the 2017 winter-spring flight season and the 2018 summer-autumn flight season.
