Airbus on Wednesday announced a new agreement with China’s Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB) to begin modernizing the nation’s air traffic system.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) authorized the new partnership, which calls for Airbus ProSky–the air traffic management subsidiary of Airbus–to focus on launching four projects this year, including; air traffic flow management, airport collaborative decision making, implementation of Required Navigation Performance Authorization Required (RNP AR) approaches at Chengdu Airport and Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) at Beijing Capital Airport.
CAAC is looking to improve the air traffic management practices of one of the most delayed air transportation systems in the world. According to flight data provider FlightStats, just 18 percent of flights from Beijing Capital Airport took off on time for the month of June, and the second most delayed airport in the same month was Shanghai.
According to CAAC, Chinese airlines handled 319 million passengers in 2012, a 9.2 percent rise from 2011. CAAC attributed 26 percent of delays last year to air-traffic management, thus leading to the need for the new partnership with Airbus.
"The cooperation will help us draw on the experience of other regions to develop our future ATM systems, which will be more integrated with global systems," said Wang Liya, director general of CAAC ATMB.
According to the International Air Transportation Association (IATA), China is expected to lead the global increase in passenger demand on domestic routes through 2016 with an additional 193 million passengers projected to travel domestically on Chinese carriers over the next three years.
Related: Air Traffic Management News