On July 18, CAAC held its monthly routine press conference in Beijing, where the CAAC spokesperson and heads of departments and bureaus concerned made press releases surrounding the operational safety of civil aviation in the first half of 2017, support for flight operations in the thunderstorm season, as well as the progress of the construction of the Beijing new airport, before taking questions from the press. Over 20 journalists form 16 news organizations, e.g. China Central Television, China National Radio, and Bloomberg, attended the event.

Aviation Safety: 51.32 Million Consecutive Hours of Safe Flight

Safety is the eternal theme for civil aviation, and the first priority among all civil aviation tasks. According to an official from the CAAC Aviation Safety Office, by the end of the June, China's civil aviation industry had already accomplished 51.32 million consecutive hours of safe flight for transport aviation, making the longest cycle of safety in history. In the first half, civil aviation witnessed 5.093 million hours of transport flight and 373 000 hours of general aviation flight, up by 10.5% and 0.6% over the previous year respectively, with no transport aviation accident or general aviation accident.

In order to further improve work safety and strictly implement various prevention responsibilities and measures with regard to work safety, CAAC planned a safety inspection and safety supervision campaign in June, dispatching 8 supervisory groups to 62 enterprises and public institutions in 7 regions, i.e. the North, Northeast, Central-South, Southwest, Northwest, Northeast and Xinjiang for safety oversight, and detected 164 safety hazards and problems. CAAC issued a list of those hazards and problems and set deadlines for correction, in a bid to ensure the implementation of principal responsibility and personnel qualification management. In response to the frequent bad weather conditions, such as thunderstorm in summer, as well as the characteristics of peak-season operations, CAAC will conduct another round of safety inspection covering all entities from July to October, according to the decision, plan and requirement of the State Council Work Safety Committee.

The official from the Aviation Safety Office noted that aviation safety is a systemic project, which calls for, not only all civil aviation entities, departments and people in all posts to strictly honor and perform safety duties and watch out for every critical point, but also passengers to fulfill their safety responsibility and voluntarily obey relevant provisions and requirements.

Cordial Service: Full Support for Flights in the Thunderstorm Season

Cordial service is an essential requirement for civil aviation as a service industry, the core of which is flight regularity. In June, when most of the country suffered thunderstorm and heavy rain, the safety and regularity of flight operations and passenger service stood the most severe test. According to some statistics, the 5 airports of Beijing, Pudong, Hongqiao, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, which accounted for a quarter of the national flight operations, suffered a combined 59 days of thunderstorm weather, and activated emergency response 92 times in total for massive flight delay, including 2 red responses, 19 orange responses and 71 yellow responses.

According to the CAAC Operations Control Center, based on the Civil Aviation Operations Support, flight delay causes can be attributable to weather, airlines, ATC, airspace activities, flight schedule, airports, jet fuel, passengers, joint inspection entities, departure system and public security, 11 in total. At present, the biggest impact still comes from the weather, which accounted for 50.35% of flight delays in the first half of the year, among all factors in question. Besides, the UAVs' interference with civil aviation operations has been increasing significantly in recent years. According to some statistics, 44 cases of such interference were reported in the first half of the year, an increase of 37 year-on-year, which affected 790 flights, which was 689 more than last year.

New Airport Construction: Always Synergized with the Xiongan New Area

With the hoisting and installation of the last steel frame at the end of the last month, the steel structure of the Beijing new airport terminal was successfully capped, laying down a solid foundation for the completion of the whole terminal structure by the end of the year. How will the key engineering project in the latter stage fare? What are the innovations from the new airport construction? How will the new airport connect with the Xiongan New Area? These questions concerning the engineering progress of the new airport construction draw the attention of numerous people.

Now, the main engineering design, earthwork for the flight zone, foundational handling for the Beijing new airport have been 85% through. According to heads of the Beijing New Airport Construction Command Headquarters, the follow-up engineering for the new airport construction is progressing as scheduled. With regard to the terminal engineering and construction, there will be special engineering for the luggage system and light-current information system, in addition to fine decoration, mechanical and electrical installation and exteriors. With regard to the movement area engineering, focus will be put on the surface treatment for the runway and ramp, as well as the NAVAID lighting system and signage facilities, etc.; in the meantime, supporting projects will be facilitated, such as air catering, maintenance, cargo transport and business aviation.

As a key national project, the Beijing new airport bears an important mission to practice the five major development concepts, and embodies the wisdom derived from a century's history of civil aviation development. Journalist have learned at the conference that the construction of the Beijing new airport has adopted large amounts of new technology, such as the air-ground integrated computer simulation during the planning and design stage; with regard to terminal innovations, there are not only the hub-and-spoke five-pier configuration and dual-layer lane design, but also green innovations, such as the haze-free fresh air system; with respect to smart airport technologies, the back-end integration of some advanced systems makes the whole airport operation even more efficient, and the internet of things technology, cloud computing and personal smart terminals provide passengers with interactive equipment, including self-service equipment, which realized the 3.0 intelligence smart airport; with regard to green airport, the new airport has identified 54 indicators for green development, which will actively implement the green and low-carbon development concepts; and the unified planning for the collection, treatment and recycling of the water resources throughout the airport makes a composite ecosystem, which crystallizes the sponge airport, a world-leading concept.

"The new airport makes a new driver of the country's development", and it's become the focus of the press conference as to how to better serve the national strategy and underscore the strategic status and role of civil aviation in China's economic and social development. Heads of the CAAC Development and Planning Department and the Beijing New Airport Construction Command Headquarters noted that, according to the overall plan for Xiongan New Area and the Compendium of Planning for Coordinated Development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, the Ministry of Transport is facilitating some early breakthroughs in transport integration for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and supporting the planning and development of a multi-modal transportation system for the Xiongan New Area. Being relatively close to the Xiongan New Area, the Beijing new airport will undoubtedly play even more positive roles. In the future, the Beijing new airport will keep up to the overall planning for the Xiongan New area, with regard to the multi-modal transport and railroad construction, so as to play major roles in the transport network of the new area and better serve and promote the strategy of coordinated development for Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.