The Ministry of Transport ("MOT") has recently issued the Decision on Revising the Provisions on Permission to Use Transportation Airport (the "Decision") and the Decision on Revising the Administrative Provisions on Scheduled International Air Transport, both of which will take effect from January 1, 2020.
The Decision incorporates changes in two aspects. First, application conditions for the airport use permit are amended. The conditions to apply for an airport use permit, as specified in Article 8 of the Provisions on Permission to Use Transportation Airport are amended accordingly, replacing Item 5 which reads "approval has been obtained to the targeted airspace, flying procedures and operating standards" with "approval has been obtained to the targeted airspace", and adding a new Item 6 reading "flying procedures and operating standards meet the requirements of the Civil Aviation Administration of China ("CAAC")". After the revision, the airport flying procedures and operating standards will be no longer the precondition for granting an airport use permit, and instead, will be examined together during the airport use permission process. Second, as regards the cancellation of airport use permits, Item 1 of Article 17 is revised to read: "1. the airport use permit is revoked, because conditions for work safety are no longer met after the airport shutdown".