Ready to Take Off
The aviation sector is looking to spread its wings
By Yin Pumin
LIKE A BIRD: Sun Yuan (back), a girl from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has a license for general aviation flight (XINHUA)
China is expected to allow private planes to enter low-altitude airspace—below 1,000 meters—without military approval from 2015, according to an aviation meeting held in Beijing on November 21-22, 2014.
The country will deepen its reform of airspace management to give a boost to the aviation industry, Vice Premier Ma Kai told government and military authorities at the meeting. He also urged improvement of the legal framework governing low-altitude airspace and streamline approval procedures.
According to a statement published after the meeting, an aviation law—which has been called for by many industry insiders for a long time—has been included in the legislative agenda and is expected to enter process in 2015.
China's low-altitude airspace is controlled by the Air Force and the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). Private flights currently need to go through a time-consuming and complicated approval procedure to fly in low-altitude airspace, which has hampered demand for private jets.
In November 2010, the State Council, China's cabinet, and the Central Military Commission of the Communist Party of China jointly released an order to open up part of the country's low-altitude airspace for the first time.
Since then on, a pilot project that rolls back restrictions on low-altitude airspace use for general aviation flights has been underway across the island province of Hainan and nine other cities—Changchun, Guangzhou, Tangshan, Xi'an, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Kunming and Chongqing. This trial will go nationwide in 2015, according to the meeting.
In 2013, central authorities initiated new flight approval procedures, under which general aviation flights no longer need advance applications and approvals from authorities except in special circumstances such as flying through restricted zones and conducting aerial photography of military facilities.
The moves aim to promote the country's general aviation industry, which is poised to soar to great heights if given the chance to spread its wings, insiders say.
Typically, general aviation refers to relatively small, privately owned—and often business-related—aircraft, in contrast to commercial airliners or military planes.
"General aviation industry in China is entering a golden age. It is likely to become China's third leading industry along with automobiles and high-speed trains," said Wang Jian, Deputy Director of the CAAC's southwest management bureau.
According to ACCA figures, China has a total number of 226 general aviation companies and another 198 enterprises are in the process of being established.
The number of registered civilian aircraft in China is 1,786, but the CAAC estimates that this number will rise to 5,000 by 2020, with an annual growth rate at around 19 percent, and the potential aviation market demand will reach $15.5 billion in value term, representing a new economic engine, said Wang Zhiqing, Deputy Director of the CAAC.
Training pilots
One of the direct results from the further opening of the low-altitude airspace is the rising demand for general aviation pilots.
According to the CAAC, China will need to train about half a million civilian pilots by 2035 to meet the market's demand, up from just a few thousand at present.
"It takes time to solve these problems if we want to ensure the sector's safe, efficient and steady growth," said Wu Jingkui, Chairman of the Asian Business Aviation Association.
"I do not expect to see the industry boom suddenly," Wu said. "Everything, from pilot training to researching the business, takes time."
Noticing the shortage of pilots, some general aviation operators have started planning to train pilots themselves.
Bi Wei, Chairman of CITIC Offshore Helicopter Co. Ltd., the largest helicopter operator in China, said the company has been given approval to train pilots and technicians, and it will build a training center and schools.
"As the general aviation industry develops, the training business will be a huge market," Bi said.
Zhang Jian is the general manager of HNA Aviation Academy's marketing department, a subsidiary of HNA Group Co. Ltd. That group is the parent of Hainan Airlines, which operates a network of scheduled domestic and international flights.
The HNA academy, the second-largest flying school in China in terms of training hours, is moving into the private-license training business, but only 5 percent of its trainees have chosen to go that route.
About 130 students will graduate from the school this year, and most of them will work on scheduled flights, Zhang said, adding that the school has not seen a marked increase in general aviation trainees.
Incomes of general aviation pilots are much lower than those of civilian jet pilots who fly for major domestic and international carriers, even though the basic salaries and hourly rates are about the same, said Li Jian, a 25-year-old helicopter pilot, who noted the huge difference in flying hours.
Li has just signed up to fly with a general aviation operator based in north China's Hebei Province. He was an aviation technician before attending a flight school for nine months in the United States.
But the lack of working hours is a problem across China's general aviation industry. The whole industry, with 1,519 aircraft, recorded 591,000 flight hours in 2013, compared with about 25 million hours in the United States, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.
However, Li can expect more time in the air soon, when low-altitude airspace reform will serve as a catalyst for the general aviation sector.
CAAC Deputy Director Wang said China's general aviation flying hours will reach 2 million annually, with more than 5,000 aircraft, by 2020.
"Demand for general aviation is huge and it is a rising industry with great potential," Wang said.
Industrial bases
Since 2012, Faku, a small county in northeast China's Liaoning Province, has gained national renown as a hub for general aviation.
The local government has placed special emphasis on developing related industries, treating them as a pillar of the local economy, and setting an ambitious long-term target to manufacture at least 5,000 aircraft annually.
In August last year, the county hosted the Third Shenyang Faku International Flight Show—the largest air show in north China. The five-day event attracted more than 80 aviation-related enterprises and several aerobatic display teams from China and overseas.
"In the past three years, we have made a huge investment in the general aviation sector, and we won't be satisfied until Faku becomes China's 'light air capital,'" said Li Wenjie, Deputy Director of the Faku General Aviation Industrial Park Management Committee.
Established in 2010, the industrial base, which has a planned area of 68 square km, has worked to attract enterprises involved in aircraft research and development, production of components, maintenance, personnel training, and flight tourism. China's air traffic control authorities have approved the base as the country's first pilot station for low-altitude aviation services, he added.
The county is also home to a small airport, the first in northeast China dedicated solely to general aviation.
"We are definitely one of the few pioneers among local governments to have anticipated the growth of the general aviation sector and to have actively embarked on making that a reality," Li said. "We've been able to reap the rewards while many others are still making plans."
At the August air show, six businesses signed investment agreements with the industrial base. The projects include an amphibious aircraft manufacturing base and a plant to produce light aircraft, and will embrace the entire industry value chain, from development, production, marketing and selling, maintenance and training of personnel, Li said, adding that 37 light aircraft were sold at the show.
Recalling the development path of Faku's aircraft industry, Feng Shouquan, Party chief of Faku, said the sector could enjoy rapid growth because of the close proximity to Shenyang, the provincial capital, which is home to a number of aviation institutes and enterprises, and the county's high entry thresholds for businesses and investment.
"We are determined to transform Faku into the Chinese version of Wichita," Feng said.
Like Faku, more than 100 general aviation industrial bases are already under construction or are close to construction work nationwide, according to Gao Yuanyang, Director of the General Aviation Industry Research Center at Beihang University in Beijing.
In Jingmen in central China's Hubei Province, an airpark funded by the Aviation Industry Corp. of China (AVIC), the nation's leading aircraft maker, is under construction. The park will require investment of almost 10 billion yuan ($1.63 billion) and is projected to take shape before 2019, according to AVIC. It will feature aircraft sales services, pilot training schools, aeronautical service facilities, fliers' clubs, and aviation museums.
Meanwhile, Beijing-based AVIC announced that it will establish 50 airparks across China. AVIC plans to make the parks multifunctional platforms that will serve private pilots, boost aviation businesses, disseminate aeronautical knowledge and culture, and promote creative economy in the aircraft industry, according to Tan Ruisong, General Manager of AVIC.
