Recently, the world famous ranking website "RankingRoyals" published a data, ranking the countries with the largest number of airports in the world by 2022. In this statistics, the United States is far ahead, with 13513 seats, while China has less than 1/20 of the United States, with 507 seats.
"RankingRoyals" explained the statistics, saying that the statistics in the chart are "airports that can be identified from the air", and that airports are paved (concrete and asphalt) or unpaved (grass, sand, soil) roads, including closed airports or airports with abandoned facilities inside. Those airports that cannot be identified in the air are not within the scope of statistics.
In other words, in this statistics, the number of airports in the United States is far ahead because it includes not only civil airports, but also many general airports. The so-called navigable airport refers to non-commercial air transport, mainly including private aircraft, commuter aircraft, agricultural sprayers, etc.
According to the official statistics, the FAA website shows that there are 19633 airports in the United States, including 5082 public airports and 14551 private airports. By the end of 2022, there were 254 domestic transport airports (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) in China. From the official data, the gap is more obvious.
The reason why the United States has tens of thousands of airports is inseparable from its unique geographical location and geopolitical conditions. The air defense pressure of the United States is not large, which makes the restricted airspace ("special purpose airspace" SUA) of the United States not account for a large proportion of the total airspace, and the available airspace for civil aviation and navigation is very large. Although the population of the United States is also "more in the east and less in the west", the existence of two coastlines makes the population distribution of more densely populated areas along the west coast relatively uniform, which makes the overall airspace utilization rate greater. In addition, the United States is generally in a state of "vast land and few people", so the foundation for the development of navigation is good.
At the same time, due to the low technical threshold of FAA for navigable aircraft and the loose approval policy, the flight approval is extremely fast. When applying for instrument flight in Class E airspace below 5486 meters, the flight plan is usually reported within 30 minutes to get a reply. If a visual rule flight is carried out, there is no need to declare in advance before takeoff, and the convenience of supervision greatly reduces the threshold of navigable flight. It can basically fly when conditions permit, which is extremely flexible. This also makes general aviation flight a common thing in the United States.
This also reflects from the side that the United States is very relaxed in aviation control. Under such circumstances, the development of American civil aviation industry has been very rapid in the past decades. In a recent report, the American Airlines Association (4A4) recalled that the story of the Wright brothers was enough to prove that the United States had good soil for the development of civil aviation and general aviation, especially in the golden age of civil aviation development (1930-1960). Although the price of air tickets at that time was amazing at the current level, and the aircraft cabin at that time had not yet achieved airtight pressurization, The flight altitude was low, the flight was often delayed due to the weather, and the flight speed was also slow, but these could not prevent a few passengers from enjoying the luxury services at that time: the aircraft seats were large, the leg space was sufficient, and the meals provided by the flight attendants were packed in real porcelain tableware. Almost all the shortcomings were covered up by the high-quality service of civil aviation at that time.
According to data, at present, there are more than 810000 employees in the U.S. civil aviation industry around the world, more than 260000 flights run around the world every day, carrying 2.6 million passengers to and from 80 countries and regions every day, and more than 220 countries and regions travel by cargo flights every day.
Influenced by historical factors, the development of China's civil aviation lags far behind that of the United States. However, to some extent, the process is similar. When the hardware level is insufficient, we try to make up for it with services.
For example, in the early days of the development of China's civil aviation, the airline ticket needs a letter of introduction from the unit. In addition, there were free Moutai (even bottled cigarettes at the earliest!) and cigarettes (yes, five packs of Zhonghua cigarettes were sent on the plane, and smoking in the cabin - there was an ashtray device on the plane!). At that time, the seat density was really smaller, and the single seat was also larger.
Today, the data of the two countries in the civil aviation industry are quite different. ceicdata.com shows that the total employment of China's civil aviation industry in December 2022 will be about 600000, about 75% of the total 800000 civil aviation employees in the United States.
However, in terms of navigation, China has obviously not yet opened up, which also puts the number of airports and international cargo transport at a disadvantage.
Compared with the US passenger airline operating in more than 80 countries and regions every day and the cargo airline operating in 220 countries and regions, a news on People's Daily Online on October 3, 2021 mentioned that by the end of 2020, China has signed bilateral air transport agreements with 128 countries or regions, and maintains regular passenger and cargo transport with 64 countries, which is a certain gap.
Moreover, China is not only comparable to the United States, but also to Indonesia, an Asian country. As a huge archipelagic country, Indonesia has a population of more than 270 million and 673 airports, making it the country with the largest number of airports in Asia. Sukarno Hada Airport in Jakarta, the capital of the country, is the busiest one, with an annual passenger throughput of about 58 million.
Li Jian, the former deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said in an interview with the media in 2023 that the development prospect of aviation "rejuvenation" should not be restricted by the deviation of "safety" cognition.
Li Jian said: In fact, general aviation has not only solved the problem of major traffic safety, but also solved the problem of fast and convenient travel and new growth points of economic and social development. As far as China is concerned, we still lack a lot in this area, and conversely, there is also a huge space for development in this area.
In 2018, China Economic Network also published the article "China's general aviation regulation is too strict to restrict the take-off of the development industry to be" untied "", in which it was mentioned that in 2017, China's general aviation flight hours were less than 3% of the United States, even significantly behind Brazil, South Africa and other developing countries, and the development was seriously lagging behind. Over strict government management and insufficient low altitude opening are considered by the industry as the two bottlenecks that must be broken through in the development of China's general aviation industry.
For example, the government has too strict management, which means that in our country, all airspace is under the management of the air force, which also leads to the limited airspace that civil aviation can use.
Inadequate low altitude opening means that aircraft used in some special scenes in China, such as spraying pesticides, will be strictly controlled.
In addition, China also has strict regulations on the construction of various airports. According to the civil airport construction management regulations, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (hereinafter referred to as CAAC) is responsible for the supervision and management of the planning and construction of civil airports and related air traffic control projects across the country, and the regional civil aviation administration is responsible for the supervision and management of the planning and construction of civil airports and related air traffic control projects in its jurisdiction.
Moreover, in the Management Regulations, the construction of an airport should not only be reported to the Civil Aviation Administration for filing, but also have clear provisions on airport site selection, pre feasibility study, feasibility study (or project approval), overall planning, preliminary design, construction drawing design, construction implementation, acceptance and completion financial settlement.
Therefore, if the current strict air control is relaxed, the development of China's aviation industry will have visible progress. The progress of an aviation industry will also drive the whole upstream and downstream industrial chain and significantly improve the economic strength of the country.
Extended reading:
Li Jian: The development prospect of aviation "rejuvenation" should not be restricted by the deviation of "safety" cognition
