Civil Aviation Data Analysis (CADAS) reported a total of 80,000 incidents of flight delay by China’s carriers in April alone,earning China the dubious honor of contributing to 40% of the total delays among 112 airlines in the world and 82% of delays among Asian airlines.
In sharp contrast, Japan’s three national carriers – Japan Airlines, ANA and Japan Transocean Air – are among the top 10 most punctual carriers in the world.
China’s airports and airlines had the worst punctuality in the world,according to a previous US study. The worst performing airports in this regard are Shanghai’s Hongqiao and Pudong airports and Hangzhou Xiaoshan Airport, with on-time rates of just 37.17%、37.26% and 37.74% respectively.
CADAS points out that on-time performance of China’s carriers showed signs of improvement hitting an all time low in February, but adverse weather in April affected on-time rate again.
North China Air Control Authority’s chief engineer Xiaodong Yan thinks Chinese aviation’s on-time rate is plunging is due mainly to the rapid expansion of flight services and airport construction in the last few yearsfar outpaceing the industry’s capacity todeliver comprehensive support services.“Actually the rate of delay has dropped slightly. For example, despite its rapid increase in flight volume, Beijing Capital Airport has raised its on-timeperformance rate by 10%, from 60% to 70%,” he said.
China Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) Shenzhen Safety Control’s vice director Yusong Wang attributed the frequency of flight delays to a variety of reasons, from unavoidable factors such as weather, air traffic control and military exercises to high volume of air traffic, complicated airspace system and complex coordination among different relevant entities that cause chaos in air traffic control operations.
However, according to March data by the CAAC, China’s major airports had an average on-time rate of 74.02%, with six airports recording an on-time rate of over 80% and Kunming Airport recording the highest on-time rate at 89.31%. Sanya Airport ranked the lowest with an on-time rate of only 47.9%.
Mr. Yan said that there is no international standardized system for calculating flight delay and every system is different, so there’s no point in making comparisons.(Translation by David)
