The General Administration of Civil Aviation (CAAC) said
yesterday that 584 flights scheduled to leave the Beijing Capital
International Airport will be cancelled between July 15 and
September 25.
The cancellations are for the sake of flight safety and the
normal operation of airports across the country, according to a
CAAC statement.
The 584 flights are mostly between 5 PM and 8 PM, the period
when thunderstorms are most likely to occur in Beijing.
According to meteorological experts, thunderstorms, a major
cause of flight delays in the summer, are predicted to be more
frequent in the country this year than ever before.
One-fourth of the country's total flights go through Beijing's
airport. The CAAC was concerned that many flights would be delayed
this summer, affecting flights at other airports. Delayed flights
have sparked many complaints since the end of June.
"Because of thunderstorms in Beijing, our flight from Changzhou
in east China's Jiangsu Province took us 12 hours to get to
Beijing, even longer than a train trip," said Ni Ronghui, 34, who
took her son and parents to travel in Beijing.
The flight she took on June 30 was first forced to land in
Zhengzhou of central China's Henan Province because of a thunderstorm in
Beijing.
The family was kept waiting on the plane for more than four
hours at midnight, which she said was hot and suffocating, and
finally arrived in Beijing at 4 AM on July 1.
Having missed their planned night in a hotel, the family had to
begin their travel in Beijing listlessly after a sleepless night,
Ni said. A recent survey showed passenger complaints about flight
delays have accounted for at least 60 percent of the total
complaints received.
In order to avoid such inconvenience for passengers and to
guarantee flight safety, the administration decided to cancel the
flights of four airlines including Air China, China Eastern, China
Southern and Hainan Airlines.
Those cities affected include Hangzhou in southeast China's Zhejiang Province, Xi'an in northwest China's
Shaanxi Province, Nanjing in Jiangsu Province,
Harbin in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, Qingdao and Yantai in
east China's Shandong Province, and Haikou in south China's
Hainan Province.
The CAAC has urged the four airlines to inform customers who
have bought tickets and enable them to either change their flights
or get a refund.
(China Daily July 8, 2006)