The airport’s design was revealed last week by Zhu Wenxin of the airport’s construction team. Measuring 1,144 meters in length from east to west, and 996 meters from north to south, the six-pointed, starfish-shaped airport will serve as a transportation hub that includes facilities for air travel, high-speed rail, subway, buses, expressways, and an inter-airport transportation system.

The airport will serve passengers with 78 gates over two floors, the top designated for international flights and the bottom for domestic. The airport will feature five airside concourses, one central hall and a hotel.

A rapid transit line will connect the new airport with Beijing South Railway Station, allowing passengers to travel between the two destinations in just 30 minutes.

Passengers arriving by train will enter the airport from below, through the 340 square meter transport center. Instead of going through the above domestic arrival hall, they can enter the airport through the transport center’s security checkpoint.

A 13,000 square meter commercial district will be built at the center of the six arms of the “starfish” construct.

All flights from Beijing Nanyuan Airport will be diverted to this new airport, which has yet to be officially named.

The new Beijing Airport is 46 kilometers south of the capital, further than the current Beijing Capital International Airport in the northeast.

This past August, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) announced that China Eastern and China Southern Airlines would relocate from Beijing Capital International Airport to the new airport where they would exclusively offer their services.

Citing a rise in air travel which saw Chinese take 4 billion domestic trips and over 100 million international trips last year, the CAAC plans to not only increase the number of airports but also the number of domestic and international routes.

Guangzhou Baiyun Airport is expected to open a new passenger terminal and transportation center with a rapid transit link in 2018. Meanwhile, Chengdu has scaled back plans for its $11 billion airport.

The post Beijing’s New Airport To Be World’s Largest appeared first on The Nanfang.

Revised regulations on WiFi use on commercial flights in China may allow airline passengers to use their smartphones and access the internet as soon as the end of the year.

Legislation to amend regulations that limit the use of electronic devices on board is underway, said Zhu Tao, director of the air transportation division at the Civil Aviation Administration of China in an interview. Tao said the relaxed restrictions may be implemented by the end of this year or by early 2017.

Last November, China Eastern was the first Chinese airline to begin offering in-flight WiFi service on their international flights operating out of Shanghai. China Daily also reported that WiFi services will be available on Chinese high-speed trains within three to five years.

Demand for WiFi on airlines is so high that a survey found 90 percent of respondents claim the availability of in-flight WiFi would influence which airline they fly with. Although the future looks bright with its promise of in-flight WeChat and Taobao, smartphone use aboard Chinese commercial airliners is not favorably looked upon right now.

Last week Monday, a revision to China’s Civil Aviation Law proposed fining passengers 50,000 yuan ($7,515) for using smart phones during flights. Phone use was included in a list of prohibited behaviors that pose a risk to public safety that included smoking, forcibly occupying seats, blocking channels and gates, breaking into airports and planes, assault on the flight crew, fighting, spreading rumors and causing public mischief.

The new law covers violations that aren’t punishable under China’s criminal law.

The post Finally! Soon You Can Update WeChat Moments from 35,000 Feet appeared first on The Nanfang.

After being asked to return to their economy seats, the passengers became abusive and proceeded to insult and beat the flight crew. A police officer assigned to the plane was also beaten when he tried to intervene. A witness named Zhou said the police officer suffered a bloody nose in the fracas.

Although it had already begun taxiing for lift-off, the plane returned to the gate where airport police took the two passengers into custody. As a result, the plane was delayed for two hours.

As the plane was delayed and assault was involved, the two men are now subject to administrative detention between five and 15 days, as well as a fine between RMB 500 and 1,000.

Hainan Airlines is urging the authorities to put the two men on a “travel blacklist”.

The post Flight Crew Assaulted When Passengers Refuse To Leave First Class Seats appeared first on The Nanfang.

Ms Li, a 23 year old college graduate who had come to Hangzhou for a job interview, was returning home to Beijing on the evening of May 4 when the incident happened.

Security staff stopped Li from passing through the security checkpoint because a bottle of contact lens solution was marked as holding 118 ml. According to Chinese aviation rules, the limit is 100 ml.

Li was told she should check the contact lens solution in her luggage because the bottle would not be allowed through. However, Li disagreed saying most had been used up already, so there wasn’t much left in the bottle.

Security said that if Li was able to produce another 100 ml container that could hold the contact lens solution she would be permitted to take it on board, but she was unable to do so.

Unwilling to part ways with her contact lens solution, Li returned to the security checkpoint a second time. This time, Li put the contact lens solution into a disposable paper cup that she held in her hand. She was told a paper cup wasn’t going to work either, so she tossed it onto a guard.

That’s when she was arrested.

The post No Liquid Allowed, Angry Passenger Throws Contact Lens Solution at Airport Officer appeared first on The Nanfang.

Chinese flyer Fu Jingnan got stuck at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Thursday when he was refused a boarding pass. Fu discovered his ticket was illegally purchased with mileage points, and was issued another ticket after contacting Ctrip. However, even this ticket was rejected by the airport on the same grounds.

Again Ctrip apologized to Fu, and flew him home on a brand new ticket. Ctrip has since said it will offer triple compensation in addition to a full refund to any customers who fall prey to the scheme. The company has also promised to increase the supervision of its agents to prevent future issues.

“I felt humiliated after being investigated for three hours at the Japanese airport and was almost detained,” said Fu. “I want Ctrip to apologize and remove the negative records created by the airport and airlines.”

Last Saturday, Li Miao dealt with a similar issue after purchasing return tickets from Beijing to Sapporo, Japan from Ctrip only to find his tickets were invalid. “Air China said they could not find the ticket numbers in their system. That means (the airlines) did not sell the tickets,” Li said on a WeChat post which was read over 100,000 times yesterday.

The couple was forced to purchase a new pair of tickets. When Li contacted Ctrip he was told that “a ticket agent had forgotten to issue tickets to the customers after receiving the payment.”

China has experienced a travel boom in recent years that saw tourists take over 100 million trips abroad last year. Likewise, the increase in ticket sales has coincided with an increase in the number of Chinese airlines offering mileage points. Despite the stipulation by Chinese airlines that mileage points are non-transferable, exchanges are publicly offered on online vendor sites such as Taobao where, for example, customers can buy 10,000 mileage points for 600 yuan.

Citing excessive customer complaints, last week Air China and China Eastern joined a growing list of Chinese airlines refusing to sell tickets on Qunar, China’s number two online travel retailer that is both a rival and partner to Ctrip through a shares swap.

The post Beware of Ctrip: Company Accused of Fraud After Customers Stranded Abroad appeared first on The Nanfang.

On January 9, the Zhang family was all set to travel to Dubai as part of an organized tour. After boarding the plane, the Zhang’s three year-old boy became extremely upset and screaming he wanted to get off the plane because it was going to crash.

It was a tense moment as the entire plane was waiting for the boy to calm down, which he did not. Here’s how Mrs Zhang explained it:

Nothing was working: my husband tried raising his voice, while everyone on the plane from other passengers to the flight attendants all tried to console him. When the plane was about to take off, my husband and I quickly debated whether one of us should go ahead. However, our child wouldn’t hear a word of it, and wanted all three of us to get off the plane because the plane was going to crash.

The plane refused to take-off with a child screaming that the plane was going to crash so the Zhangs agreed to leave the plane. Crew were sent to retrieve their luggage, and the Zhangs were escorted back to the airport terminal.

Once the Zhangs left the plane, the boy immediately calmed down and stopped crying. When his parents asked him why he thought the plane was going to crash, he responded that his grandmother told him as much.

Said Mrs Zhang, “Once we heard our son say that, we all laughed until we cried.”

Due to their son’s outburst and the grandmother’s advice, the Zhangs relinquished their tickets worth over 20,000 yuan (over $3,000).

The post Crying Child Forces Entire Family Off of Plane appeared first on The Nanfang.

The massive infrastructure undertaking will not be cheap. To help cover the costs, China plans to invest upwards of 77 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) on civil aviation infrastructure this year alone. The investment will support eleven key infrastructure projects and 52 upgrades on civil aviation facilities, including work on new airports in Beijing, Chengdu, Qingdao, Xiamen, and Dalian.

Construction of Beijing’s second international airport is scheduled to be completed in June 2019. Work on the airport’s terminal and air traffic control facilities began last September, while construction of other support buildings is expected to start June of this year. Located to the south of the capital, Beijing New Airport will be the largest in the country. The airport will have seven runways and process some 72 million passengers a year.

Meanwhile, a new runway being built at the existing Beijing Airport, is anticipated to help accommodate an additional 8 million passengers a year.

Citing a rise in air travel that saw Chinese take 4 billion domestic trips and over 100 million international trips last year, the CAAC plans to not only increase the number of airports but also the number of domestic and international routes.

Xu Hongjun, a professor at the Civil Aviation University of China, admits that the expansion of airports in China is not good for everyone. “A lot of small airports are not doing well. They need a lot of subsidies from the central government. They were too optimistic,” said Xu. Perhaps the best example is the airport in Libo, Guizhou. Following the completion of construction in 2007 at a cost of $57 million, the airport made headlines after receiving only 151 passengers in all of 2009.

Compounding the problem is the fact that Chinese airlines have been rated as some of the worst in the world, and that Chinese passengers normally have to endure numerous flight delays when traveling in China. Domestically, Chinese airlines are also facing increased competition from the country’s high-speed rail network, which offers passengers a more affordable way to travel within China.

The post China To Build 66 New Airports Over The Next Five Years appeared first on The Nanfang.

For RMB 4,999 ($770), commuters can hop on board an Astro Air helicopter and travel between Guanzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai in just half an hour, a fifth of the time when compared to other modes of transportation.

Passengers can depart from and arrive at helicopter landing pads in the Central Business District (CBD) areas of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and in the Hengqin New Area of Zhuhai, now part of the new free trade zone.

Astro Air is planning to expand service to other Guangdong cities including Dongguan, Foshan, Huizhou, and Jiangmen. As part of the expansion, Astro Air plans to establish routes between these cities’ CBD and their respective airport, according to Nanfang Daily.

Zhu Zilin of Astro Air said that his company has plans to bring the inter-city helicopter service to Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, otherwise known as the Yangtze River Delta, in the second half of 2016. Further expansion will bring helicopter service to the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area.

Astro Air was the first company to offer helicopter service between Shenzhen and Guangzhou in August of this year, while similar services have been growing in popularity throughout China.

Last September, Nanfang Airlines Corporation offered helicopter service between Guangzhou and Macau in 45 minutes. This past May, the Didi Kuaidi car-sharing service partnered with a helicopter company to provide service between Beijing and Tianjin for RMB 3,500 ($560), completing the 120 kilometer journey in just 40 minutes.

The post Commercial Helicopter Flights Expand Across The PRD appeared first on The Nanfang.

Courtesy of Shenzhen-based private airline company Astro Air, passengers can travel between helicopter landing pads located at Excellence Century Center Tower 1 in Shenzhen and Zhujiang New Town in Guangzhou, thereby cutting an hour off of travel time. The company plans to add additional helicopter landing pads throughout the PRD.

While the company has yet to release pricing for the trip, they have said the fare will be “reasonable”.

For those who aren’t looking to get from A to B, Astro Air also offers scenic helicopter tours. The airline company has partnered with Shenzhen Overseas Chinese Town (OCT) East theme park to provide sightseeing tours out of Yantian District.

While Astro Air is the first company to offer routes between Shenzhen and Guangzhou, helicopter services for commuters has been growing in popularity throughout China over the past year.

Last September, Nanfang Airlines Corporation offered helicopter service between Guangzhou and Macau in 45 minutes. This past May, the Didi Kuaidi car-sharing service partnered with a helicopter company to provide service between Beijing and Tianjin for RMB 3,500 ($560), completing the 120 kilometer journey in just 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Uber car-sharing service has launched helicopter services in Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Hong Kong. Customers can book a 30 minute flight at a cost of RMB 2,999 ($483).

Despite 299 general aviation companies throughout China, control continues to be tightly regulated and controlled by the military. However, as a result of the State Council and Central Military Commission’s 2011 decision to gradually loosen restrictions on low-altitude airspace under 1,000 metres, new short-haul routes have gradually emerged.

Related:

• Helicopter Rescues Drunken Expat on Hong Kong’s Victoria Peak
• Forget Regular Guangzhou Taxis, Now You Too Can Be a High-Roller
• Alibaba Delivering Tea by Drone

The post Helicopter Service Launches Connecting Shenzhen And Guangzhou appeared first on The Nanfang.

A China Southern Airlines flight was forced to make an unscheduled stop in Sanya after the plane’s safety systems signaled there was a fire in one of its engines.

Flight CZ3081 for Bangkok had the alarm activated after departing from Guangzhou at 12:56pm, signifying a possible malfunction. As a safety precaution, the plane made an emergency landing at Sanya Airport in the southern province of Hainan.

Upon safely landing at 2:10pm, the model B737-800 plane remained in the middle of the runway for some time while the airport was temporarily shut down. At this point, passengers were evacuated from the plane. Some passengers suffered abrasions while using the emergency slide.

Reports now say the plane has since been taken off the runway, and that Sanya Airport has resumed operating. The incident is now under investigation.

The post Fire Alarm on Chinese Airliner Forces Emergency Landing in Hainan appeared first on The Nanfang.