By Russell Flannery, Forbes Staff Only 7% of China’s poor on-time flight record at domestic airports is connected to the country’s military, the state-published Shanghai Daily asserted today. Dismal airport service in China’s most important cities – Beijing and Shanghai — gained international attention this month after U.S.-based FlightStats ranked airports in the two at the bottom of an on-time and cancellation survey of the world’s top airports. Only 18% of Beijing flights managed to land on time last month, compared to an average of 69% among other airports covered by the research. The Shanghai Daily, reporting a broader domestic survey of 35 Chinese domestic airports, said a higher 75% of flights arrived on time last month, citing the China Aviation Administration. The figure was a five-year low, the paper said. It didn’t say which airports where included or what definition of on-time was used. Besides the 7% of delays owing to military activities, some 42% were due to carrier operations, and 26% were owed to air traffic control procedures. Weather was behind 21% of all flight delays, according to the newspaper. Other reports have cited military control of airspace as a major factor behind the delays for civilian flights. Videos of Chinese travelers frustrated by delays at the country’s major airports are regular fodder for global YouTube viewers, yet poor system management has only worsened of late. China’s main air carriers – Air China, China Southern and China Eastern—as well as its Shanghai and Beijing airports are all government controlled. — Follow me on Twitter @rflannerychina …read more
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