Recently, CAAC officially issued the newly revised Rules for the Evaluation of Domestic Routes and Flights Operated by China Civil Aviation (the Rules). The Rules focuses on establishing a fair, just, and open management mechanism for domestic routes and flights, in a bid to better adapt to the changes in China’s air transport market and accommodate the needs of building two international hubs in Beijing, as well as promote the high quality development of the air transport sector. The Rules will be in effect starting the summer/autumn season in 2019.

In recent years, China has entered a new stage in its air transport development, shown in the swelling enthusiasm of local governments about air transport development and the strong consumption demand among the general public for air transport services. By far, there are 60 airlines and 232 transport airports in China. There will be two air hubs in Beijing following the anticipated official opening into service of Daxing International Airport on September 30, 2019. Taking into account the changes in the environment for the development of air transport, and as required by the reform of civil aviation to “streamline administration, delegate power, improve management and strengthen services”, the revised Rules clearly defined the principle of “market dominance, government guidance, classified management at different levels, as well as fairness, justness and openness”, in order to promote the high-quality development of the domestic air transport sector.

The Rules clearly defined the conditions for airlines to apply for routes and flights, extra flights and temporary flights, improved the procedures for applying, reviewing and approving, and canceling (revoking), and developed indicators and standards for quantitative assessment, which further standardized the management of operation permits for domestic routes and flights.

While adhering to the practice of “liberalizing domestic market” and giving full play to the decisive role of the market in allocating resources, the Rules focuses on adjusting the macro-control measures on the approved air routes, by liberalizing the three approved routes connecting the three cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and allowing carriers to apply for operation rights on these routes as long as they meet the connectivity requirement and perform well operationally. The revised measures on the control of the approved routes are conducive to better accommodating market demand, promoting orderly market competition and creating high-quality “express lines in the air”.

The Rules also standardized the use and regulation of operation permits for domestic routes, strengthened supervision during and after events, imposed stricter requirements for the standardized and adequate permit usage, and focused on monitoring and seriously dealing with unscheduled flight inauguration, low rate of plans implementation, dishonesty and other acts, to promote the continuous improvement in the operation quality of domestic routes.