New Radar System Keeps Keener Eye on City's SkiesBeijing's air traffic control will send radars over more of the city's sky to allow more planes to use the Capital International Airport, aviation officials said Wednesday, January 3.Starting on January 15, the advanced, radar-based traffic control system -- which means installing the highest technology radars designed and made in the United States -- will be able to control more planes within a specified time frame. The current radar system, put in place in December 1997, only has a 100-kilometre radius from the airport, according to Xia Chaozheng of the Air Traffic Management Bureau of North China Regional Administration under the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Arrivals and departures averaged 403 flights a day before the current system was in place, and the system has increased the capacity to an average of 600. Traffic at Beijing airport was expanding at a rate of 15 per cent a year, and Xia said his bureau had felt mounting pressure to improve the conditions. Expanding the area in which the radar-based air traffic control system works will substantially improve flight punctuality, reduce time between take-offs and landings and make better use of the air space, he said. "With the radar-based air control system expanding to cover areas beyond Beijing's air terminal, we project the capital airport will be capable of handling 1,100 arrivals and departures a day by June," Xia said. "This will enable the airport to accommodate air traffic growth in the coming five years." The punctuality rate of the airport averaged 80 per cent for a number of years -- and air traffic control conditions were partly blamed for the flight delays, according to the airport sources. Xia said the expanded radar-based control system will help to resolve the air traffic peak during the Lunar Chinese New Year, which falls on January 24, when most airlines will add extra flights. All China's airports, except in Beijing and Guangzhou, use a procedure-based air control system, with radar as auxiliary control. It lags far behind systems in developed countries, according to Xia. Source: China Daily |
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