Aviation News
- Air transport struggles ahead of Games
Date: 14-Aug-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
AS China enters final preparations to host the 2008 Olympic Games next August, its modern but overburdened air transport system faces huge challenges if it is to handle the millions of people expected, analysts say.
Passenger traffic on Chinese airlines is forecast to rise 16 percent to 185 million journeys in 2007, making it one of the fastest growing aviation sectors in the world, but the industry is still dogged by airport under-capacity.
During the Beijing Olympics from August 8 to 24, 500,000 additional passengers are expected, posing a logistical nightmare for the country.
For transport officials and airlines Beijing Capital International Airport is the critical gateway that potentially poses the most problems, according to the Center of Asia Pacific Aviation.
'Beijing airport in particular has had real problems keeping up with demand over the last few years,'the Sydney-based research firm said in a report.
'This is hardly surprising, in view of the massive expansion of air travel in China since 2000.'
Travel demand in China - driven by the nation's spectacular economic advance - is doubling every four years, putting huge stress on an industry that despite being flush with cash simply cannot keep up.
The government has pledged a memorable Olympiad and taken the hosting of the Games seriously, splashing out 10 times the US$4 billion Athens spent on infrastructure.
Authorities have spruced up and expanded the Beijing airport at a cost of US$2.4 billion, including the addition of a third runway and terminal that authorities hope will be able to accommodate the soaring passenger volumes.
As of last year, Beijing airport ranked among the world's top 10 busiest airports, handling 48.7 million travelers.
In the first half of 2007, 26 million landed in the Chinese capital and even heavier volumes are expected in the latter half of the year, even though the airport was designed to handle 35 million passengers.
That number is forecast to grow to 60 million in 2008, when the third terminal is due to become operational, and authorities have said the upgrade should be able to meet that demand.
The question is whether enough will have been done to first meet the spike in traveler numbers during the Olympic period, and then the continued ultra-fast pace of demand in years to come.
'Many airports work at above capacity but none experience continuing growth rates in excess of 15 percent,'said the aviation center.
Worried authorities recently put in place a range of measures to cool the development of air transport, including suspending some flights on routes that routinely faced delays.
Chinese airlines, especially on crowded routes such as Beijing-Shanghai, are chronically late and aviation authorities have demanded they improve service even if the fault is often with air traffic controllers and inclement weather.
'Carriers are not to blame for 80 percent of delays, but rather air traffic management, the weather and passengers (being late),'said Deng Hongmei, an aviation analyst at Essence Securities.
While the move highlighted authorities' determination to improve the poor record of some carriers, analysts said it failed to tackle the root of the problem - too many planes in a small airspace.
'Airspace capacity falls short - this is a huge problem. The civil aviation industry demands faster growth, but airspace cannot be effectively expanded,'Deng said.
Feng Zhigang, an aviation analyst with Shenyin Wanguo Securities, agreed, saying: 'The concentration of flights is way too high.'
Building a new airport would be one way of heading off congestion but it's a choice that at this late stage in the game would be logistically unfeasible, analysts said.
As such, authorities are experimenting with restricting new entrants to Beijing while allowing business-hungry domestic airlines more international routes.
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