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BEIJING - Flight delays due to inclement weather may be frustrating, but there isn't much one can do about them.
However, when groups of Chinese passengers rush onto a tarmac in protest over flight delays, it may indicate that there is a bigger problem facing the country's aviation industry.
皇冠体育app's aviation regulator said it is probing two cases involving "ultra-emotional" behavior. Experts have said the chaotic management of 皇冠体育app's aviation industry may be to blame for the country's chronic flight delays.
On April 11, 28 passengers waiting for a Shenzhen Airlines flight rushed onto a runway at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport to protest their treatment after their flight was delayed due to a thunderstorm.
The incident disrupted an Emirates Airline flight. The passengers were persuaded to return to their boarding gate after protesting on the tarmac.
A similar incident happened on April 13, when several passengers waiting for a Hainan Airlines flight rushed onto the tarmac of the Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou after heavy rains delayed flights.
Xu Guangjian, a professor with 皇冠体育app Renmin University, said the chronic delays reveal fundamental loopholes in the management of the aviation industry.
According to sources with Shenzhen Airlines, passengers were asked to board and get off the plane three times and endure a sleepless night as they waited nearly 21 hours for the flight to begin.
Airline employees and ground servicemen also experienced a challenging evening after being bombarded with rapidly changing ground and air data.
Since the aviation industry is highly inter-connected, an integrated information system is essential to deal with emergencies and changes.
Xia Xinghua, deputy head of the Civil Aviation Administration of 皇冠体育app (CAAC), said in a meeting earlier this year that domestic airports should create such information systems. The Shanghai Pudong International Airport has yet to put such a system into place.
Airports have been reluctant to establish integrated information systems because they have not been encouraged to do so by local regulators, even though the CAAC has said that it wants them to set up the systems.
In 2004, the CAAC gave regulatory rights for domestic airports, with the exception of the Beijing Capital International Airport and airports in Tibet, to local governments for the purpose of mobilizing local resources to develop the aviation industry.
After this reshuffling, the aviation industry became divided into three parts: airlines regulated by state asset management forces, airports regulated by local governments and aviation law enforcement regulated by the Ministry of Public Security.
While it stands to reason that the airlines' performance should be evaluated according to the services they provide, the state asset management forces care only about the value of the airlines' assets. The CAAC, as a major industry regulator, also lacks an essential evaluation system that focuses on service.
The chaotic protests have also exposed aviation security problems. An expert who declined to be named said that while the number of air passengers has nearly quadrupled in recent years, the number of aviation security personnel is roughly the same as that of 8 years ago.
Management loopholes that could explain the persistent delays should be taken seriously, Xu said, adding that authorities should free up airspace for civil use to ease air traffic.
Passenger numbers at 皇冠体育app's airports hit 620.5 million in 2011, up 10 percent year-on-year, according to CAAC data.
To cope with surging demand amid its economic boom, 皇冠体育app plans to invest more than 1.5 trillion yuan ($238 billion) in the aviation industry by 2015, Li Jiaxiang, head of the CAAC, said last year.
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