In three years China's private aircraft will be able to take to
the skies without having to go through complex legal
requirements.
The General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) said on its
website yesterday that China has set 2010 as the year it will
categorize its airspace according to international standards.
"It means the airspace will be put into categories, such as low
and high attitude. We will adopt different control and management
rules," said a CAAC official who declined to be named.
The decision will make a big difference, because "low attitude
airspace, which at present is not fully used due to controls, will
be made more use of in the future," the official said.
This will boost the country's general aviation sector, said an
expert with the General Aviation Expert Committee, affiliated to
the Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
The expert, who declined to be named, told China Daily
the policy will greatly stimulate small aircraft sales, which have
remained low because of airspace controls and lack of pilots.
"It also signals that China's sky will be more open," he
said.
At present all of China's airspace is under military
control.
This is one reason for the slow development of general aviation
which ranges from corporate jets, air taxis to crop-dusting, cloud
seeding and aerial photography.
In places like east China's Zhejiang Province, where many people
are rich enough to buy a small private jet, to get a plane airborne
is more difficult than paying for it.
According to the present regulations, general aviation flights
need to be approved by the authorities beforehand.
As demand has been growing for the opening up of the airspace
below 3,000 meters, the government set a strategic goal in 2004 to
adopt airspace category standards.
The CAAC said: "Adopting airspace categories can ensure that the
different demands of public transportation aviation, general
aviation, and military aviation can all be met."
The CAAC said it has been studying latest world trends and
research in airspace categories.
In most countries where low attitude airspace is open, general
aviation flights only need to inform the nearest civil aviation
authority before taking off.
(China Daily April 20, 2007)