China's Aviation Administration Strives for Punctuality Improvement
By Luo Wangshu, China Daily | Mar. 03, 2017
China's top civil aviation official said on Friday that the Civil Aviation Administration of China will continue to improve the punctuality rate of commercial flights.
"I was not happy with the punctuality rate of scheduled flights before, nor am I am happy with it now. We are working to improve it," said Feng Zhenglin, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
In 2016, China's punctuality rate for scheduled flights was 76.4 percent, a rise of 8.4 percent from 2015.
Flight delays are caused by many factors, including weather, military activity, air traffic control and airlines.
The administration worked to improve the situation last year by strictly carrying out the evaluation of airline flight punctuality performance and reducing delays caused by controllable factors, such as airline problems and air traffic control, Feng said.
In 2016, about 56 percent of delays were caused by weather, compared to 29.5 percent the previous year, he said. Meanwhile, flight delays caused by poor management of airlines and air traffic control have been reduced to less than 10 percent.