CHINA IS PLANNING TO spend about 6 billion yuan ($720 million) on updating its air-traffic-control (ATC) systems. Bao Peide, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), says that 440 million yuan will be spent making the system fully communications, navigation and surveillance/air-traffic management compatible. The balance will be for other improvement projects, including full radar coverage for China's three main airports, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
In the past five years, China has spent 3.5 billion yuan on updating its ATC systems and recently inaugurated its first satellite-communications network devoted exclusively to ATC. CAAC director- general Chen Guangyi says, however, that the new allocation is "still far from enough" and has urged the Chinese aviation industry to experiment with new forms of domestic and international financing.
Source: Flight International
