As Chinese international airports gained notoriety for flight delays figuring at the bottom of the surveys, aviation officials here blamed it on the country's Air Force which spared less than 30 per cent of the airspace for the civilian flights and kept rest for itself.
Less than 30 per cent of China's airspace can be used by civilian airlines compared to over 85 per cent in the United States, an unnamed official told state-run China Daily.
The official said there is huge interest in airspace designation and management hence the air force is reluctant to relax its control.
The air force could gradually loosen its grip on China's airspace by choosing other options to combat flight delays other aviation experts said.
"According to our calculations, if the air force transfers just 10 per cent of the airspace under its control to civil airlines, an extra 200 billion yuan (USD 32.6 billion) will be generated in GDP," Professor Li Xiaojin from the Civil Aviation University of China said.
"The government could also use a certain proportion of the revenue to build new air bases in regions that don't have so many routes, so pilot training will not be affected," he suggested.
China's airspace is largely controlled by the military, and many areas are used by both civil airlines and military aircraft, leading to comparatively little space for civil aviation the Daily quoted the industry insiders as saying.
Complaints and protests from air passengers about long delays at major airports have grown in recent years.
During the past two months, at least eight protests were staged in front of boarding gates after passengers were told their flights had been postponed or cancelled, China National Radio reported.
In two incidents, passengers attacked airline employees, the report said.
The negative attitude toward airlines and airports intensified after the two biggest airports in China were given low flight punctuality scores by a United States-based data provider on air travel.
Beijing Capital International Airport, which has the most passenger traffic in China, ranked bottom of 35 major international airports in terms of delays and cancellations, Flight Stats said in its latest report, released early in July.
Shanghai Pudong International Airport, the busiest airport in China's eastern and coastal region, ranked the second-worst (34) performing airfield on the list.
Nearly 82 per cent of flights that departed from Beijing airport in June were delayed, with 71 per cent in Shanghai.
By contrast, only five per cent of flights from Tokyo International Airport.
