During the China Civil Aviation Development Forum (CCADF) 2017 held from May 25 and 26, CAAC Administrator Feng Zhenglin presided over the Symposium on Civil Aviation Development which invited local government leaders from provinces and municipalities to engage in in-depth exchanges on issues related to civil aviation and local social economic development. Dong Zhiyi and Wang Zhiqing, Deputy Administrators of CAAC, also attended the symposium.

Feng Zhenglin expressed thanks to local governments for the great importance they have attached to civil aviation. He stated that the 13th Five-Year Plan period represents a critical juncture for the realization of the strategic vision of building China into a civil aviation power. Although local governments are energetic in developing civil aviation, the industry, with an insufficient support capability and insufficient development of some fields, still needs understanding and support from all social sectors especially local governments to ensure civil aviation development in a scientific and safe way. Since the 18th CPC National Congress, China’s civil aviation industry has realized a healthy and rapid growth for many consecutive years, set the best safety record in history, kept expanding the industry scale, and continued to enhance its service quality and international influence. These achievements would have been impossible without the strong support provided by local governments at various levels. Up to now, 23 provinces (municipalities, districts) have issued their opinions on promoting development of civil aviation industry. Some areas have taken civil aviation development as an important driver to improve investment environment, optimize industrial structure and accelerate industrial upgrading.

Feng Zhenglin highlighted that a civil aviation power should have the following eight basic elements: first an international aviation market for the general public; second large-scale networked airlines with strong global competitiveness; third a global aviation hub and domestic airport network with proper layouts and functions; fourth a safe and efficient air traffic management system; fifth advanced, reliable and economical systems of safety, security and technical support service; sixth a general aviation system with complete functions; seventh the dominant right and discourse power in the establishment of international civil aviation rules and standards; and last an innovation capability which can lead the development of international civil aviation industry. To build China into a civil aviation power is a challenging process, yet remains an attainable objective. Current achievements have laid a solid foundation, however, the vulnerabilities in industry development are obvious: firstly, a serious shortage of airspace resources, restriction in slots growth of busy airports, and flight irregularity have become a hot issue; secondly, with insufficient ground support abilities and backward infrastructure such as airport construction, the actual productivity could not keep up with development demands; and thirdly, there is a great shortage in key human resources and a structural imbalance in professional technical personnel including flight, air traffic control and maintenance. To address such issues, CAAC, on one hand, has enhanced its macro-regulation to ensure the industry development compatible with resource support capabilities; on the other hand, it has taken multiple measures to further deepen civil aviation reform, advance the optimization of airspace resources, strengthen infrastructure development, intensify efforts in personnel training and strive to fill up the gaps in development.

Feng Zhenglin indicated that the 13th Five-Year Plan period represents a decisive stage of building a moderately prosperous society in all aspects and also a critical juncture for China to realize the goal of becoming a civil aviation power. The Party Leadership Group of CAAC identified the general work thought of “one, two, three, three and four”, meaning the whole industry should firmly establish the philosophy of “Development for the People”, emphasize on “flying on double wings” (public transport aviation and general aviation), encourage compliance with the three bottom lines of “Flight Safety, Integrity and Cordial Service”, improve “three networks” based on functional positioning (an airport network, route network and operational information monitoring network), and fill “four gaps” in airspace resources, civil aviation service quality, airworthiness certification capability and emergency rescue and response. The 13th Five-Year Plan for civil aviation industry has set up a major development goal that “in 2020, a civil aviation power will be initially built with continuously safe air transport, an improved air service network, enhanced abilities in infrastructure support and industry governance, greatly increased transport quality and efficiency, elevated international competitiveness and influence, outstanding innovation capabilities, and a more important role in the state’s comprehensive transportation system”. CAAC has kept deepening the reform and formed a “1+10+N” framework: it developed the Opinions on Further Deepening Civil Aviation Reform and identified 40 special reform tasks in 10 areas; Work groups of various special reform tasks have submitted to CAAC’s Party Leadership Group a number of opinions and work programs for such special reform tasks, among which 13 have been reviewed and approved. At present, various reform tasks have been advanced in an orderly manner according to schedule, and a series of reforms for civil aviation integrated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region have made positive progress, which have laid a solid foundation for realization of the planned objectives of the 13 Five-Year Plan.

Feng also pointed out that civil aviation development calls for the initiatives of central government and local governments to form consensus and joint force, and shall promote and support local socioeconomic development and vice versa. He underscored that airport layout planning is a major pillar for building a civil aviation power. It is estimated that by 2020 there will be over 260 transport airports in China with a net growth of over 60, and more than 500 general airports almost twice of the current number. He suggested that as for airport construction, local governments shall insist on planning in advance, take into full consideration market demands, strengthen communication with air transport enterprises and leave room for future development. In the meanwhile, local governments shall reinforce unmanned aerial vehicle control and clearance safety protection, attach importance to the connection between urban planning and airport ground comprehensive transport system, enhance civil-military coordination and further promote the development of local civil aviation industries.

During the symposium, Song Xibin, Mayor of Harbin Municipal Government and Ilham Sabir, Mayor of Urumqi Municipal Government introduced the latest developments of local civil aviation industries and proposed some recommendations on relevant work. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions on civil aviation and local socioeconomic development.