carl baker
What many people don't realise about Mainland China and it's capacity problems is that they are still functioning and increasing their traffic movements by something in the order of 13% a year. In 2009 Beijing Capital was the 10th. busiest airport in the world in terms of traffic movements, still a long way behind Atlanta in number one position, but catching up rapidly.
This growth is only sustainable if the air traffic capacity is increased at the same rate and this translates into 13% more airways, 13% more levels, 13% more runway capacity etc. With that 13% expansion you still can only appear to handle the same amount of traffic. To solve the current delays the air traffic capacity needs to expand over and above 13%.
It also has to be remembered that Mainland China has only a very short history of Civil Aviation development as opposed to the rest of the world and as such they should be commended for the achievements that have been made in such a short space of time. However, this development has to be continued and with the increase in air traffic movements in the Asian region it has to develop ahead of the increase in traffic if it is to cope in the future.
I think the Beijing Olympics perhaps curtailed capacity development for a year and now the problem is catching up on that lost year of development. Consider, for example, if Atlanta or Paris were to see their movements increased by 13% in one year. I'm sure there would be delays whilst the airspace, procedures and airport infrastructure were improved to cope with this increase.
The problem for Asia is that these delays are starting to spread outside Mainland China now and are impacting traffic flows in the surrounding airspace and this is leading to the Mainland being perceived to be the "weak link" in Asia and the system as a whole is only as good as the weakest link in the chain.
I'm sure the capacity constraints currently being suffered by airspace users in Asia will be solved but these things do take time to implement. It would be helpful if the CAAC published details of the steps being taken to increase capacity and the time-frame for these enhancements so that operators had an idea of what was being undertaken and its likely implementation dates. At the moment the military seem to be taking the blame for all the delays, but a 13% growth rate in air traffic movements is far more likely to be the main contributor to delays.
Perhaps caucatc could let us know on this forum what improvements we are likely to see in the next few years.