Concerns over the prospects of Beijing controlling South China Sea routes aren’t unfounded after all, especially with what is happening now in particular paths in the sky that is being regulated by Beijing.
All flights emanating from the Philippines going to some parts of China have to pass through a waypoint called Noman, thus, creating a funnel effect, leading to air congestion.
Flights from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia), Clark International Airport and Mactan-Cebu International Airport have to wait on the tarmac until China gives the go signal.
“There is grave congestion and sometimes flights are held on the ground one to two hours, because we can’t pass through gate,” said Capt. Dexter Comendador, Philippine Air Asia CEO. He added that flights going to Hongkong, Shanghai, Macau and Shenzhen have to go through that designated waypoint, also referred to as the “Southern Gate.”
“There’s another route that passes through Taiwan and South Korea [from the Philippines] called the Northern Gate, but that’s too far; [consumes] too much fuel,” he added.
In aviation, a waypoint is a point or place on aerial maps, most often referred to in coordinates to specify position on the globe. Today’s pilots find the waypoint’s location with a computer. But in the early days of aviation, a navigator onboard does the computation through physical devices.
Comendador said Noman was the agreed name for the aerial boundary between the Philippines and China. “The flight information region, or FIR, between the Philippines and China has been designated Noman during air talks with Hong Kong. It specifies that all traffic from the Philippines will only pass through that gate, for security reason.”
He noted that Noman is near Hong Kong and Taiwan, which used to be airways “Amber 61.” The name on the aerial map on Philippine FIR before is called “Abalone.”
Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (Caap) air controllers said the change was suggested by China sometime in 2004 or 2005. Taiwan remains an independent country, but China considers it a renegade province. China decided to screen all incoming flights to China from the southern backdoor “in order to screen possible military attacks from Taiwan directed at China,” he noted.
Naming of waypoints is a random process. The boundary between the Philippines and Hong Kong include names, such as Grupa, [grouper or lapu-lapu]; whale, Sabno, Conga and Monta. While some Philippine names
include Mumot, Mikin and Souse. At other times, names are adopted from geography or familiar names in specific countries, such as dalag [snakehed] and lapu-lapu for the Philippines.
Technically, the aerial boundary between two adjacent countries is called FIR. Specifically, Noman is between the Philippines and Hong Kong FIR at latitude 20000 North, longitude 1164018 East.
According to the AirAsia top executive, the bilateral agreement was between the Civil Aviation Authority of China [Caac] and their counterpart, the Caap.
The BusinessMirror asked if pilots from Philippine carriers complain to the Caap about the excessive delays.
“Yes, we do,” he said, “but I think China and the Philippines have to agree on a redesign of the highway to create more gates to enter China, maybe thorough the southeastern door.”
At this point of the interview, Comendador whipped out his smartphone and showed what appears to be a map showing the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan and part of mainland China, like someone looking down from the sky.
The map was crawling with hundreds of airplanes.
“There, look at how many airplanes are flying near Hong Kong and Taiwan through that single gate on peak hours, it is very full.”
Asked if the Caap has forwarded the Philippine air carriers’ complaint to its Chinese counterpart, Comendador said “probably not.”
“Hindi pa yata,” he hedged, “I’m glad you mentioned that because the airlines should push the Caap to talk to China and designate additional door or official waypoint.”
He explained how flights from the country suffer as China will say, through the air-traffic controllers of the Caap: “Don’t start your engines, because you [naming specific flights] should pass Noman later on.”
And because passengers are actually the ones who suffer, waiting inside an airplane, ready to take off but sitting on the tarmac for hours, Comendador cited incidents where Chinese tourists have started to complain to their embassy.
“We were called by the Chinese Embassy because a lot of Chinese passengers were complaining about the delays,” he said, “because apparently, the Chinese envoy is not aware that it was their superiors who were the source of discomfort.”
“We explain to them the delays were caused by their own country. We told them the gate is full, that it’s beyond our control.”
The captain said the envoy would reply: “Okay, well talk to our authorities in China, and yet so far, nothing has come out of it.”
Comendador provided the answer. He said: “the Caac is independent of the political government and the Communist party.”
“So it’s like talking to co-equals,” he laughs, “that’s where the problem lies. Their embassy is politically part of government, talking to the technical part of government. The result depends on whether they will work on the suggestion or not.”
Furthermore, the military plays a significant role in the arrangement of airspace in China.
“In fact, any change in the civil airspace requires the approval of the military,” according to a research paper called “An Investigation of Airspace Congestion & Possible Air Traffic Management Integration in the Pearl River Delta Region of Southern China.”
The authors do not specifically refer to Noman as the source of traffic, but the Aviation Policy and Research Center, University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, were studying solutions to solve the air-traffic congestion at the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region.
PRD has one of the busiest air-traffic environments in Asia. The region consists of a multi-airports system, which includes five major airports: Guangzhou New Baiyun International Airport, Hong Kong Chek Lap Kok International Airport, Macau International Airport, Shenzhen Baoan International Airport and Zhuhai Airport.
“These airports vary in sizes and business models. All of them [especially Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen] have been facing serious capacity constraint and congestion in recent years,” the study said.
Their proximity (Guangzhou Airport is about 140 km from Hong Kong, while the other three are less than 60 km from Hong Kong) and respective airspace arrangements create tremendous operational complexities.
In this connection, Comendador said Philippine carriers have no choice but to suffer and obey the current edict.
“It would have been good if they added another door, but if not, we’ll follow the official pronouncement and just try to manage the delay, even if it’s two hours. Air Asia gives passengers water while waiting.”
Philippine Airlines First Officer Capt. Giancarlo Villanueva said: “We have to wait for the clearance even before we could start our engines at the Naia,” he said.
“Sometimes the wait last from one to two hours,” he added, which is reminiscent of the slotting process the Naia adopts to lessen the congestion at the premier airport.
The supervisor on duty at the Caap area control center said specially affected are flights going to Shanghai via Pudong Airport and those headed toward Xiamen.
“Somestimes Xiamen Air has to wait three hours before they are allowed to start engine,” the supervisor said.