Business travellers in China face chronic flight delays and cancellations due to overcrowded skies and military control of airspace. Danny Armstrong, general manager of China Banking at National Australia Bank, frequently resorts to contingency plans such as booking specific carriers or switching to high-speed trains. On one occasion, he hired a police escort to get his CEO to a meeting after a flight delay from Shanghai to Beijing.
According to FlightStats, 14 of the bottom 20 airports globally for on-time departures are in China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan, with on-time ratings below 60%. Hangzhou's airport ranked worst in China at 41%, while Shanghai Pudong (52%), Hong Kong (59%), and Beijing (64%) fared slightly better. In contrast, Tokyo's Haneda Airport achieved a 92% on-time rate.
Aviation experts attribute the problem to the military controlling over 70% of China's airspace, leaving less than 30% for civilian use, compared to about 80% in the US. This bottleneck can lead to mass cancellations during military drills, such as in summer 2014 when 12 airports reduced traffic by 25% for three weeks.
Despite these issues, China's airline industry continues to grow, carrying 440 million passengers last year, an 11% increase. The International Air Transport Association expects annual passengers to reach 1.2 billion by 2034. Business travel is also booming, with spending rising 16.6% to $261bn in 2014, and China projected to overtake the US as the top business travel market.
To address the airspace constraints, the Chinese government opened a third of low-altitude airspace (below 1,000m) to civilian aircraft in October, with plans to expand to 3,000m. David Yu of the International Bureau of Aviation noted that the government recognises the issue and is moving towards opening up airspace.
