| 中国民用航空局 | |
 Emblem of the Civil Aviation Administration of China | |
.svg) | |
 CAAC headquarters inBeijing | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1949; 76 years ago (1949) |
| Jurisdiction |  China |
| Headquarters | Dongcheng, Beijing |
| Agency executive | |
| Parent agency | Ministry of Transport |
| Website | caac.gov.cn |
| Civil Aviation Administration of China | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 中国民用航空局 | ||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 中國民用航空局 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
TheCivil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is thecivil aviation authority of thePeople's Republic of China, under theMinistry of Transport. It overseescivil aviation and investigatesaviation accidents and incidents.[2] It is headquartered inDongcheng, Beijing.
Before Deng Xiaoping's reform of separation of government and enterprise, the agency operated theCAAC Airlines with monopoly status from 1953 to 1987.
On 2 November 1949, shortly after the founding of thePeople's Republic of China, theCCP Central Committee decided to found the Civil Aviation Agency under the name of thePeople's Revolutionary Military Commission, and under the command of thePeople's Liberation Army Air Force, to manage all non-military aviation in the country, as well as provide general and commercial flight services. The Civil Aviation Agency was created in December of the same year, and established offices inChongqing,Guangzhou,Shanghai,Tianjin, andWuhan.[3] On 10 March 1950, the Guangzhou Office began to work, managing civil flight services in Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hunan. Later, it was merged with Wuhan Office to form the Civil Aviation Office of Central and Southern China on 21 January 1951, in Guangzhou, it was renamed Central and Southern Civil Aviation Office, working for civil flight administrations in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hubei, and Hunan.[citation needed]
On 7 May 1952, the People's Revolutionary Military Commission and theState Council issued theDecision for Reorganizing Civil Aviation (Chinese:关于整编民用航空的决定) and the Civil Aviation Agency of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission was transferred to the military system and was under the direct control of the PLA Air Force, then split the civil aviation administration division and airline division to form the separate Civil Aviation Agency and civil airline. Under this decision, from July to November 1951, the Civil Aviation Agency had four administration offices in Shanghai (Eastern China), Guangzhou (Central-Southern), Chongqing (Southwestern China), and Tianjin (Northern China). The Southern China branch was briefly renamed the Civil Aviation Administration Office of Southern China. On 17 July 1952, the People's Aviation Company of China was created, headquartered in Tianjin.[4]
On 9 June 1953, followingAeroflot in the Soviet Union, the People's Aviation Company of China was merged with the Civil Aviation Agency of the Central Revolutionary Military Commission, and domestic services were continued under the name 'Civil Aviation' (Chinese:民用航空). Later, theSKOGA was merged with the Beijing administration office on 1 January 1955.[5]: 275
In November 1954, the Civil Aviation Agency of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission was renamed Civil Aviation Agency of China. It was transferred to the State Council and came under the leadership of both State Council and PLA Air Force. The PLA Air Force was also responsible for technical, flight, aircrew, communicating, human resources, and political works. After the merger with SKOGA, the new airline continued to operate under the name 'Civil Aviation' until early 1957 before changing its operating name to CAAC (Chinese:中国民航).[citation needed]
On 27 February 1958, the Civil Aviation Agency was transferred to theMinistry of Transport. Later, the Agency ratified theReport for the Opinions of System Devolving (Chinese:关于体制下放意见的报告) from the party branch of the Ministry of Transport in 17 June. Both national and local authorities have responsibilities of civil aviation. International and main domestic flights were mainly under the leadership of the national authority while local and agricultural flights were mainly under the leadership of local authority. Thus, most provinces and autonomous regions established their own civil aviation administration offices. Five administration offices in Beijing, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Ürümqi were changed to be regional administration agencies in 13 December. The Agency was renamed the General Administration of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transport on 17 November 1960.[citation needed]
In April 1962, the Presidium of the 2nd National People's Congress decided to rename the General Administration of Civil Aviation of the Ministry of Transport to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China on the 53rd meeting. It was transferred to the State Council and was managed by the PLA Air Force. The General Administration of Civil Aviation was transferred to the PLA Air Force on 20 November 1969.[citation needed]
In 1963, China purchased sixVickers Viscount aircraft from Great Britain, followed in 1971 by the purchase of fourHawker Siddeley Trident aircraft fromPakistan International Airlines. In August 1971, the airline purchased six Trident 2Es directly from Hawker Siddeley.[6] The country also placed provisional orders for threeConcorde aircraft. With the1972 Nixon visit to China, the country ordered 10Boeing 707 jets. In December 1973, it took the unprecedented step of borrowing £40 million from Western banks to fund the purchase of 15 additional Trident jets. Soviet-builtIlyushin Il-62 aircraft were used on long range routes during the 1970s and 1980s.[citation needed]
On 5 March 1980, the General Administration of Civil Aviation was no longer managed by the PLA Air Force, and was transferred to the State Council.[7] Some administrative works were still under the People's Liberation Army and the air controlling was managed byPLA General Stuff Department and Air Force Command.[citation needed]
On 30 January 1987, the State Council ratified theReport for the Reform Solution and Executive Steps of the Civil Aviation System Administration System (Chinese:关于民航系统管理体制改革方案和实施步骤的报告).[8] Since then, CAAC acted solely as a government agency and reorganized six regional administration agencies, and no longer provided commercial flight services. In 1988, the airlineCAAC was divided into a number of individual air carriers, many of them named after the region of China where it had its hub.[citation needed]
On 19 April 1993, the General Administration of Civil Aviation was elevated to a ministry-level agency of the State Council.
In March 2008, CAAC was made a subsidiary of the newly created Ministry of Transport, and its official Chinese name was slightly adjusted to reflect its being no longer a ministry-level agency. Its official English name has remained Civil Aviation Administration of China.[citation needed]
On 11 March 2019, the CAAC was the first civil aviation authority toground theBoeing 737 MAX.[9] After so doing, most of the world's aviation authorities grounded the MAX, including theEuropean Union Aviation Safety Agency the next day.[10] It took the USFederal Aviation Administration until 13 March to ground the MAX.[11] Aviation commentators saw this as having bolstered the global reputation of the CAAC at the expense of the FAA.[12][13][14] After the MAX was cleared to return by the FAA in November 2020,[15] the CAAC reiterated that there "is no set timetable" to lifting the MAX grounding in China.[16] In early August 2021, a MAX made a test flight in Shanghai for validation.[17] Later, the CAAC issued an airworthiness directive on 2 December to allow the type return to service if the MCAS is corrected following Boeing's instructions.[18]
Currently, CAAC is an administrative department mostly intended to supervise the civil aviation market. CAAC releases route applications every week and for routes that do not fly to an open-sky country/region, there will be monthly scoring releases that determine the score for each of them. CAAC subsequently grants permission to start on those who score highest on the list.
CAAC administers China's no-fly list.[19]: 113
List of Directors of the Civil Aviation Administration of China:[20]
| Name | Chinese name | Took office | Left office |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zhong Chibing | 钟赤兵 | November 1949 | October 1952 |
| Zhu Huizhao | 朱辉照 | October 1952 | June 1955 |
| Kuang Rennong | 邝任农 | June 1955 | June 1973 |
| Ma Renhui | 马仁辉 | June 1973 | June 1975 |
| Liu Cunxin | 刘存信 | June 1975 | December 1977 |
| Shen Tu | 沈图 | December 1977 | March 1985 |
| Hu Yizhou | 胡逸洲 | March 1985 | February 1991 |
| Jiang Zhuping | 蒋祝平 | February 1991 | December 1993 |
| Chen Guangyi | 陈光毅 | December 1993 | June 1998 |
| Liu Jianfeng | 刘剑锋 | June 1998 | June 1998 |
| Yang Yuanyuan | 杨元元 | May 2002 | December 2007 |
| Li Jiaxiang | 李家祥 | December 2007 | January 2016 |
| Feng Zhenglin | 冯正霖 | January 2016 | July 2022 |
| Song Zhiyong | 宋志勇 | July 2022 | Incumbent |
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The 737 Max does not appear close to flying again. Aviation experts doubt global regulators will act in concert to approve the 737 Max for flight, because serious questions remain about how and why the FAA approved the 737 Max for flight and whether it rushed the certification process.
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