Aviation industry awaits opportunities

The T-50 jets of Republic of Korea Air Force aerobatics team, the Black Eagles, perform a maneuver in the aerial display on the first day of the Singapore Air Show February 11, 2014. [Photo/icpress.cn]

However, Yang acknowledged that there are still bottlenecks such as infrastructure to the growth of the air transport sector in China.

The supply of air transport services will continue to be stretched over a certain period of time to come, as it can be seen from the on-time rate of the flight services falling in recent years and to as low as 71.8 percent in the first half of 2013.

This is in comparison with the 85 percent target on-time rate for flights in 2030.

Yang said the authorities in China will seek to expand the pilot reforms in low altitude airspace management, speed up the legislation works, simply the procedures for the general aviation aircraft and equipment to be approved, give more support to the general aviation specifically for use in charities and give more support to training.

Stanley Hui, chief executive of Hong Kong Airport Authority, said that the approach of allowing airspace to be primarily utilized for civil aviation but with exceptions if it is necessary may be an option authorities should consider.

Yang said there are still many preparatory work to be done to push through the reforms in low altitude airspace, including the capabilities and capacity building in managing the airspace under the new system.

"At the end of the day, the airspace resources should be utilized primarily to drive economic growth at peaceful times," he said, adding that infrastructure, capacity building and training will be necessary before the general aviation industry can really take off.

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