AviationWeek.com/awst AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/NOVEMBER 3/10, 2014 63

Bradley Perrett Beijing

Disappointingly

Slow

China is making little progress

in opening its skies to

fixed-wing general aviation

“O

nly thunder, no rain,” the Chinese say when they

mean “all talk, no action.” For more than five years,

China has been talking about opening its low-alti-

tude airspace. But so far as fixed-wing aviation goes, all that

noise in the heavens has been accompanied by just a sprinkling

of precipitation.

When the government, after much debate, adopted a policy

in 2010 to encourage general aviation and allocate the needed

airspace, operators and manufacturers had the impression, or

hope, that by the end of

the 2011-15 planning period,

private airplanes would be viable across

much of the country. Instead, it seems, the acknowledged

economic value of that aspect of general aviation has been

largely unable to overcome the state’s deep instinct for con-

trol. Personal flying is an exercise of freedom. The Chinese

government, and especially the military ofcers who control

the skies, are not much interested in freedom.

“Progress has been much slower than we hoped,” says a

China-based manager for a Western general aviation airplane

maker. “Frankly, there has been very little progress.”

Chinese helicopter operations are developing far faster, and

manufacturers seem to have good reason for optimism about

helicopter sales. Avic rotary-wing specialist Avicopter is striv-

ing to get products ready as soon as possible so foreigners do

not take the whole market. Its latest project is the 3.1-metric-

ton (6,800-lb.) AC332, due to go into service in 2018.

The reasons rotorcraft operations are progressing faster

are readily apparent. Many helicopter uses involve supporting

state functions, such as policing and rescue, so the authorities

are directly in control. Helicopters do not fly far and therefore

need little airspace, so it is not hard to meet their needs. And

they do not have to fly high, raising few fears of people peering

into military bases.

Far above them, business jets are increasingly common, but

they are treated as part of commercial aviation. They must

share the inadequate airways the military allocates to airlines

and fly between commercial airports. They cannot simply take

the direct route that best suits the mission, nor even fly above

the commercial trafc, which most are quite capable of doing.

In between those levels is the unluckiest sub-sector, opera-

tions of private fixed-wing propeller aircraft. While trial space

for them has been opened, the general rule across China re-

mains as it always has been: You cannot simply file a flight

plan, hop into your airplane and fly across the country from

one airfield to another at, say, 2,000 meters (6,600 ft.). Even

where airspace has been opened, the authorities have often

failed to issue detailed procedures for its use.

Figures compiled by Avic show the results. About three-

quarters of Chinese general aviation last year, measured by

flight hours, was for pilot training, an urgently needed activity

that can be largely restricted to airspace close to the field at

which it is based. Of the rest, more than half involved flying for

agriculture, policing, power-line inspection and so on. Only 13%

was for private travel, almost all of which was most probably

conducted in business jets.

Private companies, even those that handle helicopters,

are pretty tightly regulated. Private helicopter transport is

possible, because, with some difculty, the air force can be

persuaded to designate short airways with a ceiling of 300 me-

ters—for example, from one commercial airport to another. To

use the airway, a flight plan must be filed by 3 p.m. on the day

before flight, as is typically the case for business jets in China.

Things become much harder if the customer needs to fly

to a new destination—say, a factory he

or she is building in a

town with no airport. “Then

you have to do a lot of work,”

says the general manager of a

helicopter operating company

in a southern province. First the

operator applies to an air force

ofce for permission to use a new landing spot. If that is forth-

coming, approval from another air force ofce is needed for a

temporary route to the landing spot; when this is in hand, the

issue is passed to the Civil Aviation Administration of China

to administer. Altogether, it takes 7-10 days.

“Sometimes we get inquiries from people who want to fly

in three days and we just have to tell them it cannot be done,”

says the general manager.

The good news is that if the temporary route is repeatedly

used, it can be recognized as a permanent one. There is a trend

to allow helicopter operations in more places. And the authori-

ties are tending to be less strict. As a result, says Hong Kong

consultancy Asian Sky Group, helicopter numbers in China,

Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan have grown by 20% annually

over the past four years; some acceleration is underway.

So in this area, at least, the much discussed opening of low-

altitude airspace is a reality. But the way the authorities are

handling helicopter flights by specialist operating companies

hardly suggests that private fixed-wing flying, if it ever be-

comes widespread, will be easy. c

Helicopters face fewer

restrictions in China

than fixed-wing gen-

eral aviation. Avicopter is

responding with products

such as the AC332.

BRADLEY PERRETT/AW&ST^

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