CAAC, China’s aviation regulator, has allowed 35 new direct routes in an effort to reduce carbon emissions and counteract the global financial crisis. This logic may be hard to follow but think of it as rationalizing the routes and it makes sense.
The shorter routes will mainly link busy airports, including Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.
This move can also help airlines save fuel costs and ease congestion at some of the country’s busiest airports, such as in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Xi’an and Qingdao. Some of the new routes also cut travel time between the Pearl River Delta and far-flung regions such as Europe and Mongolia.
China Aviation Civil said that during the Spring Festival this year, the CAAC also opened direct routes to cope with rising demand. The routes saved more than 2,400 tons of fuel by cutting flying distances by 280,000 kilometers and helped to reduce discharge of carbon dioxide by 7,600 tons.