The Director-General of the Air Traffic Management Bureau (ATMB) of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, Mr Che Jinjun; the Director-General of Civil Aviation, Mr Simon Li; and the President of the Civil Aviation Authority of the Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr Chan Weng-hong, attended the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region Air Traffic Management Planning and Implementation Tripartite Working Group (TWG) high-level meeting in Harbin today (September 12). They were briefed on the work progress of the airspace management technical group and the air traffic flow management (ATFM) technical group under the TWG, and discussed measures to further optimise airspace management in the PRD region and enhance the efficiency of regional ATFM.
At the meeting, the senior management of the three parties agreed that progress has been made in a number of areas since the last meeting in November 2017. First, with regard to airspace optimisation and air traffic management enhancement, the airspace management technical group set up a fast-time simulation (FTS) modeling sub-group at the end of last year to initiate modelling and simulation of the airspace and air traffic in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The FTS has a certain degree of complexity as it involves data integration and analysis work from many airports in the PRD. At present, the database required for the FTS software is near completion. Consolidation and validation of the database are about to begin, while assessment and analysis work is expected to be completed by next year. The TWG will formulate specific measures to further optimise airspace and air traffic management based on the results of the assessment and analysis.
The TWG is also committed to improving the efficiency of ATFM in the region. There has been a marked reduction in flight delays along the eastern coast of China since the full operation of Route M503 was commissioned early this year, which is an additional route beyond the original one, with more notable improvements for flights between Hong Kong and Shanghai Pudong International Airports. The on-time performance of flights departing from Hong Kong to Shanghai Pudong International Airport jumped from about 47 per cent in the second quarter of 2017 to about 68 per cent in the second quarter of 2018. The TWG will continue to actively study the gradual increase in usage rate of routes connecting Hong Kong, Macao and other regions in eastern China to meet the growing demand for air traffic in the region.
In addition, air traffic control units have established a direct co-ordination mechanism on ATFM for flights from Hong Kong and Macao flying to or through the Mainland. The TWG will continue to monitor flight delays and will discuss measures to improve on-time performance when necessary.
Mr Li said that the TWG has made encouraging progress in various aspects, and will continue to progressively achieve the ultimate target runway capacity of 102 air traffic movements per hour under the Three-runway System operation at Hong Kong International Airport and promote the healthy development of the air transport industry in the Mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, so as to achieve greater synergy in the Greater Bay Area's airspace and create an airport economic belt with international influence.
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