China's Changing Skies

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Elizabeth Keck

March - April 2001 Issue:

Cover by Benjamin Hurd

Elizabeth Keck is the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) senior representative in Beijing. The opinions in this article are those of the author, not the FAA.

China is reforming and upgrading its air traffic management systems

The PLA turned over 26 major civil air routes to CAAC last July, bringing the total number of airways under CAAC control to 29. CAAC has full power to manage all flights that use these main arteries, including sequencing arrivals and departures.

ATMB has also been investing in a major technology modernization program that has included purchases of radar surveillance equipment for major airports and airways, installation of more navigation equipment, and construction of communications networks. This effort has made China one of the largest markets for air traffic control equipment in the world.

China today has a general aviation fleet of 372 aircraft, of which only 27 are business (turbine-powered) aircraft, and 86 are helicopters. The country has only 43 private pilots. This contrasts sharply with other countries of similar size and GDP. Brazil, for example, with a slightly smaller GDP than China, has 1,150 business aircraft alone.

Just over two years ago, Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones set the last remaining around-the-world aviation record by circumnavigating the globe in a hot-air balloon. It was the flight clearance from China that made this record possible. And it was the quiet, gradual change in philosophy behind the management of China's skies that made issuing this flight clearance possible.

For China, the Piccard-Jones balloon flight clearance was highly unusual. In the PRC's air traffic system, almost all airspace is owned and tightly controlled by China's military, and civil aircraft fly in dedicated airways typically 40 km wide and at predetermined altitudes. In contrast, balloons fly where the winds blow them, heedless of predesignated air routes. China's willingness to allow this flight reflects the country's efforts to improve the management of one of its national assets--its airspace--which, in turn, is having far-reaching effects on its civil aviation system.

Outgrowing a military past

Until recently, China's military made all airspace decisions about traffic in its 1,122 civil airways. The military, which had ultimate authority over any changes in routings, flight clearances, and other routine activities, relayed these decisions to China's civil air traffic authority--the Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB) under the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC). ATMB controllers, in turn, passed the messages to the civil aircraft.

This airspace-management system has functioned adequately in China's environment of low aviation activity, but at the expense of growth. China lags behind the world in all aspects of general aviation activity, such as business, helicopter, and small-aircraft operations, for a country of its GDP and geographic size. The reason is simple--no airspace is readily available for these types of operations. And in the absence of market demand, Chinese aircraft manufacturers have missed out on the chance to develop small-aircraft manufacturing capability. The long lead time needed for flight clearances also prevents operators from changing routes to take advantage of favorable winds, thus hindering fuel efficiency and increasing ticket costs.

New policies improve coordination and safety

Fortunately, as air traffic has increased in recent years, Chinese aviation leaders have begun to modernize the airspace-management system to allow aviation activity in China to expand. The steps they have taken are opening opportunities in the general aviation field for the first time.

At the core of these modernization efforts is a shift in China's airspace-usage policy. In the past, China gave military missions top priority. This meant delays for civilian airlines anytime military aircraft wanted to fly. Military controllers also controlled military aircraft no matter where they flew, increasing the difficulty of ensuring that civil and military aircraft were being kept far enough apart.

China's new civil-military coordination principle gives priority to civil aviation to ensure optimal civil operations, while providing concurrent consideration for military flights. The principle further states that military and civil air traffic coordination must also meet the requirements of other flight activities, such as general aviation and sport flights. Such a policy, in practice, means that peacetime military missions should be organized and coordinated so as to reduce disruptions of regular airline operations.

China's aviation leaders have set up a structure to coordinate airspace demands between civil and military users at national, regional, and local levels. The State Air Traffic Control Commission (SATCC), a State Council level organization headed by a deputy director responsible to a vice premier, coordinates aviation at the national level. SATCC is an administrative body made up of executives from some 13 Chinese government organizations involved in air traffic control, including CAAC and the People's Liberation Army (PLA), Air Force, and Navy, among other organizations. This body develops national airspace policy and resolves conflicts over airspace usage that cannot be solved at the local and regional level.

Below SATCC is the Regional Air Traffic Control Commission (RATCC). RATCC is made up of representatives from the PLA Theater Control Unit and CAAC Regional Administration ATMB officials. This organization coordinates airspace usage within a region and is typically involved in major changes in airspace allocated for civil use, such as occurred when the new Pudong International Airport opened in Shanghai.

At the local level, airspace usage is coordinated in real time. PLA Regional Control Units and CAAC provincial administrations, and PLA Airport Control Units and local CAAC air traffic control facilities, interact daily by telephone, telex, and fax.

A significant outcome of this new airspace management policy was that the PLA turned over 26 major civil air routes to CAAC last July, bringing the total number of airways under CAAC control to 29. CAAC has full power to manage all flights that use these main arteries, including sequencing arrivals and departures. Furthermore, all military flights using these air routes are also under ATMB control.

In addition to turning over routes to CAAC, SATCC also has been improving the safety of existing air routes--especially at intersections between corridors--by opening separate corridors for air traffic going in different directions. In the past, aircraft were stacked vertically based on the direction they were flying. Now discussions mention transferring more airways to CAAC and opening up some low-altitude airspace, up to 500 m (1,640 ft), for helicopters and small planes.

Though better communication between ATMB and PLA controllers at all levels has resulted in major improvements in recent years, flexibility remains limited. Business and other types of small aircraft wishing to fly across China must apply for flight clearances two weeks in advance. Passenger airlines with designated frequencies are still unable to change routings at the last minute to take advantage of favorable winds.

When the unexpected occurs, CAAC sometimes has difficulty coordinating flight clearances. In one recent case, the aircraft wing of an international air carrier's plane was damaged when the Shanghai airport ground crew accidentally towed it into a light pole. Although the carrier quickly located a replacement aircraft in Manila, the plane could not depart for Shanghai until the following morning, which was the earliest officials in the CAAC dispatch office were confident they could reach PLA border-monitoring facilities in southern China to alert them of the new flight.

Modernizing air traffic control

This gradual change in China's airspace-management system, along with its growing traffic, is driving the country's air-traffic control modernization program. With full control over 29 air traffic routes, ATMB can now begin to utilize air-traffic-flow control and management techniques to increase the usage and efficiency of aircraft operating in these air routes. ATMB is now seeking assistance to improve this capability through exchange programs with the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other organizations.

Chinese air traffic control facilities, also scheduled for modernization, are organized along the same principles found in most countries. ATMB has divided the country's airspace into manageable blocks and designates various facilities to cover different altitudes. ATMB has 27 area control centers (ACCs) that control high-altitude traffic (above 6,600 m), and 37 facilities that manage low- and medium-altitude traffic (below 6,600 m). ATMB operates four terminal-control facilities that sequence traffic coming into its busiest airports: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong Province. It has air traffic towers at some 130 airports to control aircraft that are arriving, departing, and on the ground. Airports that also serve the military, like the airport in Kunming, Yunnan Province, also have PLA-run towers that control military traffic landing there.

ATMB's long-term plan is to increase the number of terminal operations as traffic grows, but to decrease its high-altitude ACCs to 10 and its medium- and low-altitude control operations to 24. This consolidation is needed because aircraft now fly much faster than they did 50 years ago. Flying over a country with 27 ACCs means that pilots must constantly change radio frequencies--sometimes as often as every 10 minutes--so they can stay in touch with the controllers in charge of the various pieces of airspace through which they are flying.

The ACC consolidation project is also now one of China's most high-profile procurements. Three companies, Raytheon Co., Lockheed Martin Corp., and French-based Airsys ATM SA competed for the contract to build a center in Beijing, followed by centers in Shanghai and Guangzhou. ATMB announced in January 2001 that it intended to select Airsys and began business negotiations. The estimated value of the initial contract is about $100 million. Competition for this bid was tough, as the winner of the initial contract is expected to receive the follow-on contract for the other seven centers. Each center is expected to have about 50 controller work stations.

If the ACC competition had taken place in the United States, the FAA would have selected one contractor for all 10 centers. Until recently that was not expected to happen in China, which during the past 50 years practiced a policy of procuring from multiple vendors to ensure it was not dependent on one outside source. This fragmented procurement system prevented ATMB from receiving the price advantages of purchasing on a national scale and from standardizing replacement parts and maintenance operations. In China, this past procurement practice resulted in the country having what many officials jokingly refer to as a "radar museum" scattered across the country. Learning from that experience, ATMB leaders have worked hard to build a consensus for a national procurement policy for the 10 ACCs.

New procurement opportunities

In addition to the procurement of the network for the 10 ACCs, ATMB also has been investing in a major technology modernization program that has included purchases of radar surveillance equipment for major airports and airways, installation of more navigation equipment, and construction of communications networks. This effort has made China one of the largest markets for air traffic control equipment in the world.

Surveillance radar
ATMB is currently working on procuring some 40 radar and installing them along its busiest air routes. Last year, for example, ATMB purchased four monopulse secondary-surveillance radar valued at about $6 million for the Beijing-Guangzhou air route. Installing radar along its busiest corridors will enable ATMB controllers to increase air traffic flow, as radar is a proven technology for safely reducing separation between aircraft. Currently, ATMB uses procedural control methods--large time and space intervals--to separate aircraft. While safe, it is less efficient because it uses more airspace.

Communications
ATMB's expansion and modernization of its communications infrastructure focuses on ground communication systems, a VSAT satellite-based communications network, and a VHF air-ground network. US company ARINC Inc. has been China's technology partner on the VHF air-ground network, and has sold some 100 ground stations to ATMB's Air Data Communication Co. (ADCC), which operates the network. To expand Chinese airlines' use of this system, the CAAC Airworthiness Department has mandated the installation of data link communications equipment on the Chinese fleet. Hughes Network Systems has been building ATMB's VSAT network.

Navigation
ATMB has chosen to install ground-based navigation technology in the eastern area of the country, where most traffic is concentrated. Each of China's more than 140 civil airports is now equipped with an instrument landing system, which emits signals to guide aircraft on the approach path to a runway. About 20 of these airports have systems providing coverage from both ends of the runway, increasing runway utilization. In recent years, ATMB also installed another 170 units of VHF omnidirectional range transmitters (VOR) and distance measuring equipment (DME) along air routes and at airports, providing more radio navigation points for pilots.

Flight inspection
To support its increased use of ground navigation aids, ATMB also has been ramping up its flight inspection capability. Specially equipped small aircraft conduct flight inspections to ensure that the ground-navigation equipment is calibrated to emit accurate signals. ATMB's flight-inspection unit now has six aircraft--three Cessna Citations and three King Airs--which are equipped with US-based Sierra Co.'s flight-inspection calibration equipment. The flight-inspection unit of ATMB, based at Beijing Capital International Airport, routinely tests 900 pieces of equipment located around the country. It also provides flight inspection services for the Macao and Hong Kong airports.

Aeronautical information
ATMB is working on developing an electronic aeronautical information system that airlines can access by computer disk or network. As China's fleet of general aviation aircraft grows, so will demand for more detailed aeronautical charts that identify obstacles, along the lines of those found in the United States. Today, ATMB only issues charts of its airways.

Most of China's air traffic investment has been in traditional ground-based air traffic technology, but ATMB is now beginning to take steps to exploit the capabilities for navigation and surveillance provided by the global positioning system (GPS) and other satellite-based positioning systems under development, which provide accurate information about aircraft positions.

About five years ago, Rockwell Collins, Inc. sponsored a comprehensive demonstration of the capability of GPS technology in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. Despite the demonstration's success, ATMB has only taken steps to begin using this technology during the past two years. In western China, where terrain is rough, building a ground-based navigation network is impossible. The optimal solution is the use of communication, navigation, and surveillance systems that employ satellite- and aircraft-based equipment.

Spurred by Qantas Airways Inc., which was seeking a shorter route to Europe, ATMB used this technology to open a new 2,900 km route--L888--extending from China's border with Laos northward to its border with Kazakhstan, shortening the flying time between Australia and Europe by 15-45 minutes. As part of this project, ATMB purchased controller workstations from ARINC Inc. for its facilities in Chengdu, Sichuan Province; Kunming, Yunnan Province; Lanzhou, Gansu Province; and Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. At the same time, it worked with the airlines and aircraft manufacturers to determine what types of avionics and communications systems aircraft flying this route would require. This whole effort has required coordination with the PLA, which keeps a tight rein on airspace in this region. After successful flight trials by Qantas in June 2000, route L888 was officially opened in November. CAAC now plans to open another route using this technology between Chengdu and Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region.

Polar routes open

Another initiative involving ATMB coordination with the Chinese military is an effort to shorten other international air routes, particularly those over the North Pole. Four cross-polar air routes opened for regular flight on February 1, 2001, as the result of several years of work by representatives from Canada, China, Mongolia, Russia, and the United States. As with other airspace management issues, ATMB has been working closely with the PLA because these routes involve opening new airways, moving existing border crossings, and other arrangements in airspace managed by the Chinese military.

These new routes are key to offering nonstop service between the United States and Asia and provide significant time savings for flights to China and other parts of Asia. Not surprisingly, US air carriers are pushing strongly for these new routes because of the millions of dollars they would save on fuel and the market share they could capture with nonstop flights. The Boeing Co. also has a stake in this effort, as the extended-range Boeing 777 aircraft is ideal for these routes.

General aviation activity on the rise..

China today has a general aviation fleet of 372 aircraft, of which only 27 are business (turbine-powered) aircraft, and 86 are helicopters. The country has only 43 private pilots. This contrasts sharply with other countries of similar size and GDP. Brazil, for example, with a slightly smaller GDP than China, has 1,150 business aircraft alone. Nevertheless, this segment of the market is positioned to be one of the greatest beneficiaries of the PLA's steps to open China's skies. During the past year, momentum toward accommodating more general aviation activity has grown.

Among the pioneers are the Zhang brothers in Changsha, Hunan Province, who operate a successful commercial cooling business, Broad Air Conditioning. Broad Air Conditioning was the first company in China to purchase business aircraft, and it has been using its Cessna Citation and Bell helicopter to ferry clients around the country for three years. Last year, Ms. Li Anli, general manager of a Shanghai company, planned to purchase a Beechcraft A-36 Bonanza. This caught national headlines because she was the first private individual in China to try to purchase an airplane.

In another indicator of movement in the general aviation sector, helicopter sales also appear to be improving. Sikorsky Aircraft, a unit of United Technologies Corp., recently sold two S-76s to the Ministry of Communications for search and rescue operations off the coast near Shanghai. These are the first search and rescue helicopters to be put into operation in China. Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. has also announced sales of its SB427 light twin-engine helicopters to various Chinese firms. Schweizer helicopters recently sold seven aircraft for training and law enforcement applications.

Private pilot training also is emerging as a new aviation activity. When Shanghai Eastern Aviation Training Co. opened a private flight training school in Shanghai last year, it had more than 200 applicants for its first class of 50. The school opened with a newly purchased Cessna 172R and a Beechcraft A-36 Bonanza, and plans to purchase another Cessna aircraft soon. After students complete 80 hours of ground school and 35 hours of flying time, they are eligible for a CAAC private pilot license.

When the school opened, it had permission to fly up to 600 m high in a 20 km radius of its airport, an older airport in Shanghai. Its initial curriculum, however, could not provide for practice maneuvers such as slow flight and stall recovery, which need to be done at higher altitudes. Additional airspace was needed to accommodate this new activity.

Interest in learning to fly is spreading. Private pilot-training schools have reportedly opened in Guangzhou and Beijing. The CAAC Flying College, which trains commercial pilots at a series of airports across the country, could become the base for general aviation instruction. Shandong Airlines, one of China's progressive regional airlines, is eager to begin private instruction at the airports it owns. These schools not only fill domestic demand, but also demand from would-be pilots in neighboring countries. A sports flying school about four hours south of Beijing has enrolled Japanese customers who found the price of instruction in China more affordable than in Japan.

...but safety regulations lag

China's aviation safety regulatory system, like its air traffic system, is oriented toward commercial aviation. Because China lacks a regulation known internationally as Civil Aviation Regulation (CAR) Part 91, which provides the basic safety standards and flight rules for general aviation flying, CAAC requires private and corporate aircraft owners to place their aircraft under the management of established aviation operators. (For example, Shandong Airlines manages the Broad Air Conditioning fleet.) The CAAC Flight Standards Department now has a team drafting a CAR Part 91 for China.

As the momentum to open China's skies to small aircraft has grown during the past year, aviation policymakers have been researching general aviation operations in other countries and taking steps to establish a safety regulatory structure. Last summer, for example, CAAC sent a high-level multidisciplinary delegation to one of the largest US general aviation events--Air Venture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin--where delegates learned about all aspects of general aviation operations. Another team came to the United States to examine airport facilities for general aviation operators. In China last year, CAAC hosted seminars featuring experts from the United States and other countries to learn more about managing general aviation operations. And CAAC's General Aviation Division in the Air Transport Department is preparing guidelines for general aviation operations.

Until China opens more airspace, general aviation operators will continue to work through the CAAC General Aviation Division, which coordinates with the PLA to obtain permission for small aircraft operators needing to fly in temporary air routes and airspace normally closed to civil use. As more general aviation aircraft operate in China this workload increases, and no doubt it will continue to lead to more practical arrangements between the Chinese military and civil airspace users, benefiting all who fly China's skies.

Fasten Your Seatbelt: China Improves Safety Oversight

After a series of accidents resulted in some 400 deaths in the early 1990s, China had one of the worst aviation safety reputations in the world. To their credit, China's safety leaders tackled this problem aggressively, with the result that China had no accidents for more than 30 months, from late 1994 to May 1997. China's 10-year safety record is currently 1.9 hull losses per million departures (based on hull losses of Western-built aircraft). This compares to a worldwide rate of 1.2 hull losses per million departures.

A key reason cited for China's success in dramatically cutting its accident rate was Order 77, an administrative control on pilot promotions the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC) imposed in 1993--a year before the accident-free streak began. CAAC had discovered that rapid expansion had pressured airlines to promote pilots with insufficient flight experience to captain too quickly. Order 77 requires pilots to fly a minimum number of hours (based on plane size) before they can be promoted to captain. Its requirements are even stricter than those set by the International Civil Aviation Organization and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

At the same time, CAAC moved to give its safety oversight system more teeth. In the early 1990s, CAAC's safety system was the one that China had inherited from the Soviet Union and was based on the premise that all elements of the aviation system--airlines, catering, airports, and air traffic control--were under central control. However, reforms undertaken in the 1980s, which included splitting up the airlines and allowing the establishment of regional airlines, brought out the weakness of that model. Officials realized they needed a new safety regulatory system that could effectively control the safety standards of many airlines scattered around the country.

As it has done when faced with other challenges, CAAC sent teams to other countries to study safety oversight models. Eventually, CAAC decided on an organizational framework similar to that found in the United States--a three-tiered system, with safety policies and regulations developed at the national level and implemented at the regional and local levels.

The CAAC Flight Standards Department implemented this reform in three phases. First it studied safety regulations for commercial aviation operations, commonly known in other countries as "Part 121" regulations. Then it drafted the China Civil Aviation Regulation Part 121, known as CCAR121, and finally devised a plan to put it into effect. Before enacting the regulation, however, CAAC decided to try it out on China's three largest airlines. Then CAAC could modify the regulation based on practical experience before issuing the final version.

Safety trials...

The trial phase, which took place in 1997 and 1998, proved difficult. China's airlines, which had been following safety systems derived from the centrally planned economy model, were reluctant to try the new safety measures required by CCAR121. However, in addition to pressure from CAAC, these airlines were coming under pressure from aviation safety regulators in Canada, the United States, and Australia, who were finding maintenance and operations safety problems on Chinese flights landing in those countries.

CAAC leadership first educated both its inspectors and airline staff on the new safety standards and the process for applying them to airline operations. Since this safety regulatory concept was new in China, CAAC initially turned to outside training and worked with the FAA and The Boeing Co. At the same time, CAAC recognized that China needed in-country training capability, so it hired instructors and developed a flight standards training curriculum.

CAAC then encouraged the three airlines to hire US consultants with expertise in airline safety oversight systems. With coaching from these consultants, the airlines for the first time wrote a series of operations manuals designed to provide a more systematic and comprehensive safety program for the airline. Once these manuals were written, they were submitted to CAAC's new operations, maintenance, and cabin-safety inspectors, who reviewed them to make sure they met the safety standards in CCAR121.

Once the manuals were approved, the airlines had to demonstrate implementation to CAAC. CAAC sent inspectors to the airlines where they observed maintenance procedures, dispatch operations, and other areas critical to flight safety. Inspectors also observed in-flight operations. Finally, the airlines conducted on-the-ground evacuation exercises to demonstrate flight crew emergency training. After completing this rigorous review, the three airlines were awarded new operating certificates verifying their compliance with the new CCAR121. CAAC Flight Standards officials issued the final regulation in May 1999, after revising the regulation based on the lessons learned in the trial phase.

Since then, China's 23 other airlines have been going through the same rigorous review as the first three. Most significantly, in contrast to with three years ago, Chinese airline executives today strongly endorse this new safety oversight system and are working hard to implement it at their airlines.

...lead to more improvements

This initiative has in turn led to follow-on investments at some airlines. Soon after undergoing this inspection, China Southern Airlines Co., Ltd. invested in a new state-of-the-art operations center, provided by US-based Sabre Inc., that enables it to plan and track its flights more efficiently.

Another notable CAAC initiative has been to improve the English-language skills of the country's pilots. The need for better English-language capability came to the fore with the introduction of Boeing and Airbus Industrie aircraft, which use English for their audio flight control commands. In addition, air traffic service providers in other countries raised concerns about Chinese pilots who did not understand English flying into their airspace. CAAC, again using its new safety regulatory model, issued a regulation requiring pilots born after 1954 to pass English proficiency tests or face restrictions on flying international flights and on training for operating larger aircraft. At the same time, CAAC hired a US contractor to develop an English-language training program and develop a national English-language testing system for pilots.

This initiative also has resulted in more communication between the cockpit and passengers. Four years ago, Chinese pilots rarely gave in-flight passenger briefings. Today, Chinese pilots now regularly come on the air after the aircraft lifts off to brief passengers in both Chinese and English. While a well-trained pilot is more important than one who speaks English, these reassuring announcements are another indicator of the positive changes under way in China's aviation system.

-- Elizabeth Keck