Shanghaiist was the first one who brought the sudden closure of Pudong Airport yesterday afternoon on my radar screen. Later the newswires followed, but Shanghaiist has stayed on top of the story. Since the state-owned Shanghai Daily is not reporting on this issue, it seems to be a pretty serious thing.
The most solid suggestion seems that there might have been a military emergency. Earlier suggestions said it would be an exercise, but even the military could not get away with disturbing air traffic in such a gross way for only a drill.
The airport has been closed for most of the afternoon but then could resume activities at the end of the afternoon.
Update I: Ah, Shanghaiist sheds some light on the issue and remembers an email by our friends of Acces Asia, its a conflict about payments by the CAAC, the central airport regulator, to the Chinese air force. Better expect more delays.
Why is My Flight Delayed?
We get asked this question rather a lot by people arriving and departing from Shanghai’s Pudong Airport these days. So, here’s a collective answer. Problems of course remain with the airport’s design – all that shimmering architecture and not quite enough jet ways. There’s also the problem of local airlines not wanting to pay for jet ways, hence the buses to and from the planes that slow things down.
However, the other reason so many flights are delayed is an ongoing turf war between the airport authorities (and the CAAC regulator) and the Chinese air force. Round 1 in this turf war was a while ago, and led to delays on Shanghai-Beijing flights – basically the air force thinks it should get some money from CAAC, and until it does, claims precedence of airspace and flies jets around disrupting everything. A deal was apparently reached. Now the air force is going for the Shanghai-Hong Kong route and a deal has yet been reached. Of course, the Top Guns could fly around to
their hearts content in Xinjiang, but there’s no money in that.
It would be useful when our friends at Access Asia would start blogging and leave the 20th century.
Update II: Marc van der Chijs was one of the passengers affected by the mayhem on Friday. He was not happy.
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