[photopress:thunderstorm.jpg,full,alignright]China’s aviation authorities have promised to make greater efforts during this summer’s thunderstorm season (or, indeed, at any other time) to ease air travel delays. This will be a good thing as, in the past, there have been serious confrontations at airports between irate travelers and airline staff.
The civil aviation administration said on its Web site that China’s main air traffic control centre has installed new equipment that will be able to alert the main airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou up to 48 hours in advance of storms. This should help airlines rejig their flights and, perhaps, warn passengers. Off-hand, the number of times an airline has called passengers to tell them their planes will be late because of the weather can be counted on one hand. Unlikely to see that changing.
A far, far better option is the one where the authorities improve coordination with the military, which controls almost all of China’s airways, to open temporary routes around storms and ‘reduce the effect on regular flight operations’.
Chinese airports regularly shut down during rain storms, delaying flights for hours and stranding thousands of passengers.
Source: China Daily
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