On May 23, Office of State Air Traffic Control Commission of China (SATCCC) vice director general Du Qiang said at China Civil Aviation Development Forum 2012 that, low-altitude airspace management will be promoted nationwide during the "12th Five Year Plan" period (2011-2015) and eight major upper airspace control areas operation will be realized.

According to Du, within the next five to ten years, a trend of rapid growth and diversification development will be presented in the civil aviation industry which will face not only opportunities but also risks and challenges along with the faster pace of modernization in China.

It is forecasted that, Chinese civil aviation transportation will see an annual growth rate of 13 percent during the "12th Five Year Plan" period. By 2015, the total number of airports in China will exceed 230 and the total number of transportation flights will reach 11.43 million annually, which doubles the number in 2010. In addition to airports in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, more airports including Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport and Xi'an Xianyan International Airport will rank among the most developed airports in the world. The air traffic flow in the Northwest, Northeast and Xinjiang regions are expected to increase to more than double the volume in 2011.

"With continuously expanding of the low-altitude airspace management, the Chinese general aviation industry will gradually become a new source of economic growth owing to the combination of the policy guidance by the state and the industry supports. The number of general aircraft in China is expected to reach 2,640 by 2015 with over 270 thousand hours of annual flying time and more than 12 thousand employees", said Du.

Facing the challenges above, the general idea of future air traffic management development in China is to focus on the deepening reform of the air traffic management system and airspace management in order to solve the most critical problems existed in the aviation development concerned by the public.

Du revealed that, the goal of the Chinese air traffic management construction by 2015 is to initially establish a new air traffic control mechanism which is based on the national airspace system, supplemented by informative management methods, integrated operation protection and intensified airspace management.

Du also indicated that, over the "12th Five Year Plan" period, a low-altitude airspace management will be promoted nationwide, and eight major upper airspace control areas operation will be established. Furthermore, breakthrough in the parallel flights at the major air routes as well as the separation of aircraft in the approach and departure phases at busy airports will be achieved. As a result, the on-schedule rate of flights will be lifted significantly compared to the average level over the "11th Five Year Plan" period.

In 2011, an official from the SATCCC announced to expand the low-altitude airspace available from the original areas of "two districts, one island" (Changchun, Guangzhou, Haikou) to areas including the entire Northeast region, South-central region, plus six sub-districts in Tangshan, Xi'an, Qingdao, Hangzhou, Ningbo and Kunming this year. The size of the trial areas accounts for 31.6 percent of the total land airspace in China.