Professional Pilot, March 2018

into an airport of entry A new bridge between Hong Kong and Macau Zhuhai to complete in 2018 should allow a drive from ZUH to central Hong Kong to take just over 1 hour Still with increasing air and ground congestion in the HKG area showing no signs of abating dont expect slots parking and schedule flexibility to ever be easy Well continue to face challenges in terms of Hong Kong although they may become slightly different challenges in terms of slot or parking saturation declares Jeppesen Supervisor Global Vendor Relations Mark OCarroll If for example you experience an unexpected schedule delay this can result in significant issues We had an operator who missed a departure slot and it took 5 days to arrange a new slot Jeppesen Regulatory and Compliance Specialist Kyle Sleeper recommends MFM as the primary alternate for HKG as its a much easier proposition than venturing over into the Chinese mainland When MFM does not have available slots or parking we have operators who use SZX adds Sleeper In this case however youll be dealing with additional permit applications higher costs and crew visa considerations If one crew member is missing a C type crew visa for China for example this could frustrate your ability to use a mainland airport as a parking alternate for HKG Additional ops considerations ISPs recommend that fuel releases be carried for all fuel uplifts in southern China Your release should be 52 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2018 MFM Intl Macau has traditionally been a GA reliever airport With increased congestion these days however MFM often has no GA slot or parking availability transmitted to your handler who will coordinate local arrangements If you show up without a fuel release or provide less than 3 hours notice for fuel uplift there could be delays and or issues Airport security is very good at all major airports of entry throughout this region and in most cases its not permitted to put private security either armed or unarmed on your aircraft Off airport security is at least as good as in North America or Europe Note that Stage 2 operations are no longer permitted in China In terms of cabotage ISPs say GA operators of aircraft up to 30 passenger seats whether private of charter are free to transport local nationals point to point within the country Operators hoping to orchestrate an operation to China on a budget however may be out of luck Flying to China can be highly expensive in terms of nav handling airport and permit fees says Humphrey Nav fees from TONGDA are usually in the thousands of dollars and a GA stop in China for 2 days can easily run 8000 to 10000 Summary Looking forward GA activity will only increase to the southern China region with additional airport congestion slot and parking issues anticipated over coming years The good news is the government authorities seem to be well aware of both the positive benefits and economic spin offs associated with business aviation New airports FBOs and support infrastructure are in the works Hong Kong will build a 3rd runway although this may be years into the future and connectivity is likely to improve to and between other airports in the region particularly SZX and ZUH While theres generally more to consider when setting up an operation to southern China as opposed to operating to Europe or SE Asia the region has also become more GA friendly says Fuller We recommend always using a trip support provider to help better manage any permit slot or parking challenges locally Demand for operations to economically vibrant southern China will remain on an upward trend Sleeper says Our customer base has really been expanding operations all across China lately from major airports of entry to smaller domestic locations Handling qualities and services have noticeably improved over recent years and access to all regions is now manageable Editor at Large Grant McLaren has written for Pro Pilot for over 20 years and specializes in corporate flight department coverage Guangzhou the largest city in southern China is a key business location in the Greater Bay area CAN has a GA curfew 0700 0900 local daily and restricts GA ops to just 1 movement between 0900 2200 local daily A new FBO is set to open this year at CAN