(ECNS) -- China's civil aviation regulator has mulled piloting the arrangement of flight time slots by auction and lottery amidst an expose of corruption within the industry, Beijing Business Today reports.
The pilot reform will be launched at Guangzhou Baiyunshan Airport and Shanghai Pudong Airport, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said, a move to reform the administrative approval system governing the industry and promote openness and fairness.
Half of newly added time slots to both airports in 2016 will be separately determined by "auction" and "lottery plus paid fees" for domestic flights, while the other half will still be allocated by the administration for overseas flights, according to the pilot initiative.
Any carrier that successfully completes related certification and without accidents in the past two years are qualified for auction and lottery, CAAC said.
Besides a three-year usage, carries are allowed to exchange, transfer, lease and sell flight slots obtained via auction or lottery, while those via administrative allocation can be exchanged, an aviation expert said.
The rent-seeking ecology of the aviation industry was exposed when some senior CAAC officials were put under probe, the latest of whom is Deputy Director Zhou Laizhen.
A senior executive of an airline company said flight routes and schedules are of vital importance to carriers. Wang Jiangmin, an aviation expert said traditional giant carriers owned the best time slots while new comers struggle to gain a foothold in such a competitive landscape.
However, experts worry that carriers may pass on the added costs to consumers. And it is still hard for small- and middle-sized companies to break away from the disadvantage they have against well-moneyed counterparts, it was added.
