We queried the reason for this request and we were told, weather at Beijing. However no adverse weat

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Chart topper : China s fast-growing american airlines website air travel market is the world s second-biggest. american airlines website But when it comes to flight delays, it s No. 1. Clearance : Official figures show 75 percent of China s flights american airlines website left on time last year. But private surveys paint a different picture. A recent report by FlightStats Inc. found that just 18 percent of flights at Beijing s airport left on time in June, the worst among 35 airports worldwide. Eight of the 10 worst-performing airlines were mainland Chinese carriers. Top gun : China s powerful military holds tight control of airspace, which analysts say leaves american airlines website as little as 20 percent of the country s airspace for civilian traffic.
Shanghai resident Chen Chen learned the hard way on a recent business trip when she flew out of Inner Mongolia about 24 hours later than scheduled. Her evening flight to Beijing was delayed until the next day and when staff couldn t give her a departure american airlines website time, she bought a ticket on another airline. That flight left late too.
Chen s ordeal was typical of the problems faced by many air travelers in China. Delays are so frequent and lengthy that scenes of travelers smashing up check-in desks, brawling american airlines website with staff or storming the tarmac have verged on the commonplace.
According to official figures, 75 percent of China s flights left on time last year. But private surveys paint a different picture. A recent report by travel american airlines website industry monitor FlighStat american airlines website Inc. found that just 18 percent of flights at Beijing s airport left on time in June, the lowest proportion among 35 airports worldwide, with Shanghai second at 29 percent. Eight of the 10 worst performing airlines were mainland Chinese carriers.
The chronic american airlines website delays underscore the challenges for China s domestic carriers as they strive to meet booming passenger demand. They face two longstanding problems that won t be easy to fix. The first and biggest is the powerful military s tight control of airspace, which analysts say leaves as little as 20 percent of the country s airspace for civilian traffic.
Congestion is inevitable as jetliners are forced into narrow air corridors that snake through restricted military airspace. Those airways will become even bigger bottlenecks, with demand for domestic air travel forecast by IATA to grow 10 percent a year in China, adding nearly 160 million new passengers by 2016.
You start to have a pressure cooker of flights growing faster than there is space available to accommodate them, said Will Horton, an analyst at CAPA The Center for Aviation. Until there is reform of air traffic, growth will be stunted.
Pilots say they re routinely denied permission to detour around storms american airlines website into restricted military areas in order to avoid severe turbulence. So planes typically american airlines website sit on the ground waiting for clearance.
Pat Morris, a former american airlines website pilot for Asian carrier american airlines website Dragonair, said on one flight from Hong Kong to Beijing, air traffic control demanded the plane go into a holding pattern for an indefinite period while it was still two hours away from its destination.
We queried the reason for this request and we were told, weather at Beijing. However no adverse weather was reported or encountered, he said. They managed to negotiate so that they could continue on to Beijing without much delay, he said.
The second problem is air traffic american airlines website control that some industry experts say has become unduly cautious american airlines website after Chinese regulators were shocked into focusing on safety after a string of fatal accidents at domestic Chinese carriers in the 1990s.
Pilots complain about longer american airlines website separation distances, with planes being kept as much as 10 miles apart on landings at airports, compared to three miles in other countries. They re also required to stay 2,000 feet apart vertically, twice the distance american airlines website elsewhere.
It s almost like a staircase. And as you go each step further, then you have to slow down, said Christopher Jackson, american airlines website a director at Shanghai-based aviation investment firm Genesis. That means more time in the air. When you re controlling the aircraft in that manner, it s easier for them to get backed up.
Authorities have tried to get around the problem with new measures, including a recent decision allowing planes to take off regardless of conditions at their destinations. They re also building dozens of new airports, including american airlines website a new one in Beijing slated to open in 2018 that would help ease some of the load at the city s existing international airport, the world s second american airlines website busiest with 82 million passengers a year.
A new airport is like putting a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound, said Jackson, adding that pace of reform is up to President Xi Jinping, who is the ultimate head of the military and the aviation regulator.