A study on South China Sea airspace using advanced concepts

The air traffic in Asia Pacific has been growing rapidly. The South China Sea airspace is also experiencing significant air traffic growth. The rapid growth may induce the deficiency of airspace capacity and cause more problems such as flight congestion and delay. Europe and America have conducted research and implemented particular concepts to ease the situation of high demand. In order to improve the capacity usage of efficiency of the South China Sea airspace, the concepts and technology with the potential of boosting the airspace development are taken into consideration. This paper describes these concepts and the results of preliminary activities to investigate the feasibility of these concepts while keeping safety level in South China Sea airspace. The potential benefits of reduction of fuel consumption, flight duration and route lengths are evaluated. Two city-pairs are examined for route restructure.