A day before heavy rains were blamed for massive cancellations and delays at Shanghai’s two airports, travelers were warned in advance of big delays attributed to the entirely different reason of “airport facility upgrades”.
On June 2, Yang Jian of the Shanghai Daily reported that up to half of all flights were likely to be adversely affected at Shanghai’s two airports yesterday as they both upgrade their flight control systems at the same time. A press officer from the Air Traffic Management Bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China said the airports’ communication and radar systems will be upgraded to “enhance efficiency of takeoffs and landings” in the future.
However, when Yang Jian reported on the Shanghai flight delays and cancellations on June 3, there was no mention of upgrading airport equipment and facilities. Instead, Yang reported the story as “500 flights disrupted as airports lashed by rain“.
As reported in the June 3 edition of the Shanghai Daily, more than 500 flights at Shanghai’s Pudong and Hongqiao Airports were either cancelled or delayed yesterday due to bad weather conditions, a situation airport authorities described as “the worst ever” as municipal authorities issued local yellow alerts for rain and lightning.
As of 10pm last night, Pudong Airport had 12 flights delayed by two hours, 20 flights delayed by 2-4 hours, and 16 flights delayed by four hours or more. Nearly 200 flights in all were cancelled.
Hongqiao Airport had 34 flights delayed by two hours, 25 flights delayed by 2-4 hours, and 19 flights delayed by four hours or more with 237 cancellations.
China Eastern Airlines and Shanghai Airlines said they had canceled approximately 150 outbound and inbound flights with further announcements to come.
High rate of delays and cancellations prompted officials to issue a traveler “red alert” at 2:45pm. Passengers with flights after 7pm were directly told not to come to the airport because their flights would not be available.
At one point, operational capacity of the two airports was reduced by 70 percent. Only two planes an hour were able to take off or land at Hongqiao Airport, according to flight monitoring service provider veryzhun.com.
While it appears strange that these delays and cancellations could be attributed to an entirely different reason than one given the day before, what is clear is that bad weather has been hitting the east coast of China in recent days.
Xujiahui and Pudong accumulated 50-100 millimeters of rain on June 2, while Chongming Island received a staggering 193.9 millimeters. When compared to the same time last year, this year’s rainfall since May at a weather station in Xujiahui is almost a third higher at 143.5 millimeters.
The weather has also been blamed for numerous cancellations and delays at Lukou International Airport in Nanjing. Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei Province all reported flood conditions resulting from the heavy rainfall.
There is no word if the bad weather that was eventually to blame for Shanghai flight cancellations and delays also impacted upon the service upgrades performed at the city’s two airports.
Last year, “rain” was also the explanation given for why airports along China’s east coast were shut down from July 20 until August 15. Pudong and Hongqiao Airport had their service reduced by 75 percent as airports in nearby provinces temporarily stopped accepting incoming flights, or allowed outgoing flights to depart.
While the military conduct “high frequency exercises”, two people were arrested for spreading rumors online about the secretive practice.
Although reforms have been made that have opened up new flight routes, China’s airspace remains strictly regulated, and mostly controlled by the country’s military.
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