China is set to relax its airspace restrictions in the coming decade to boost the development of the general aviation industry.

Meng Xiangkai, general manager of the China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Co Ltd, said on Friday that the State Council and the Central Military Commission had approved guidelines for the reform of low-altitude airspace management. The guidelines set the goal of bringing in reforms in the next five to 10 years.

The guidelines cover general aviation - flights that are neither military or from scheduled airlines - and include civilian flights and those for such things as rescue missions, offshore exploration and aerial photography.

Meng did not elaborate on the details of the guidelines but Shanghai Securities News reported on Friday that they call for the ongoing trial reform of low-altitude airspace management in two flight control zones - Shenyang, capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province, and Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong province - to "be deepened".

The reforms in those two areas will be expanded to the entire country from 2011, the newspaper reported.

Beijing, Lanzhou and three other flight-control zones will be opened up to low-altitude flights, the paper said.

The guidelines also set the height of low-altitude airspace below 1,000 meters, lower than the 3,000-meter boundary that the general aviation industry has previously called for.

"The guidelines will speed up the process of opening up low-altitude airspace and be a good opportunity for the general aviation industry," Meng said.

Shanghai Securities News quoted industry insiders as saying that the guidelines are expected to be "an ice-breaking move" to open China's low-altitude airspace and will trigger a golden decade for general aviation industry.

China's fast economic growth in the past three decades has increased demand for private jets, helicopters and other aircraft.

The latest Hurun Rich List released on Tuesday estimated that China has at least 875,000 millionaires with assets of more than 10 million yuan (US$1.5 million), and one-sixth of them plan to buy a private plane.

But partly due to restrictions in using aircraft, the number of general aircraft in China is still small, Meng said.

According to Meng, there are only around 900 general aircraft (including both business jets and low-end fixed-wing aircraft for forestry and agricultural purposes) in China, compared with 220,000 in the United States. There are 330,000 general aviation planes in the world.

Potential private plane buyers in China worry about complex and time-consuming approval processes as well as the high cost of maintenance and operations services.

These have dampened the enthusiasm of many who would like to buy aircraft for either leisure or business reasons.

Although some industry insiders such as Meng expect a bright future after the expected opening of low-altitude airspace, others are not so optimistic about the market.

Yang Xiaonong, a veteran private plane consultant who has sold more than a dozen private planes since the 1990s, told China Daily that the guidelines are too vague because they do not elaborate on who will be in charge of supervising the skies.

"An opened sky should allow flying without approval beforehand but, in China, the opening of low-altitude airspace may still mean that the flight will need approval first, although the procedure will be simplified after the reform.

"This is not the opening of the sky that we have hoped for," he said.

(China Daily October 16, 2010)