Foreign business aircraft operators are enjoying somewhat easier access to Chinese airspace, at least between the country’s major cities. Over the past 12 months, the management of airspace between the capital, Beijing, and the major east coast business cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou has been transferred from military to civil controllers and this has roughly halved the amount of time needed to get airways slots.
According to Joe Chen, manager of Asia Operations Company–Chinese partner of the flight planning group Universal Weather & Aviation–it now takes about seven days for foreign operators to get slots for these routings, compared with the 15 to 20 days that were generally required until last year. However, trips involving visits to multiple cities still take longer to arrange, and much of China’s “inland” airspace remains completely closed to foreign aircraft.
More In ATC
