China opens airspace to small commercial flights

Small commercial flights in China will no longer have to get People’s Liberation Army approval for flight plans, South China Morning Post reported. Starting next month, they will only need permission from the regional branch of the civil aviation administration. This should cut the waiting time for permission to take off from several days to a few hours, giving a boost to the nascent private aviation sector. The change – which applies only to general aviation and will not affect scheduled flights – was announced by the PLA and the Civil Aviation Administration.