The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC; ) is the civil aviation authority of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, under the

Ministry of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

. It oversees

civil aviation Civil aviation is one of two major categories of flying, representing all non-military and non-state aviation, which can be both private and commercial. Most countries in the world are members of the International Civil Aviation Organization and ...

and investigates

aviation accidents and incidents An aviation accident is an event during aircraft operation that results serious injury, death, or significant destruction. An aviation incident is any operating event that compromises safety but does not escalate into an aviation accident. Pre ...

. As the aviation authority responsible for China, it concludes civil aviation agreements with other aviation authorities, including those of the

special administrative regions of China The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of four types of Province-level divisions of China, province-level divisions of the China, People's Republic of China directly under the control of its S ...

which are categorized as "special domestic." It directly operated its own airline, China's aviation monopoly, until 1988. The agency is headquartered in Dongcheng, Beijing.

History

On 2 November 1949, shortly after the founding of the

, the CCP Central Committee decided to found the Civil Aviation Agency under the name of the People's Revolutionary Military Commission, and under the command of the

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force, also referred to as the Chinese Air Force () or the People's Air Force (), is the primary aerial warfare service of the People's Liberation Army. The PLAAF controls most of the PLA's air assets, includi ...

, 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 in

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

, and

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

. 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. On 7 May 1952, the People's Revolutionary Military Commission and the State Council issued the ''Decision for Reorganizing Civil Aviation'' () 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. On 9 June 1953, following

Aeroflot PJSC AeroflotRussian Airlines (, ), commonly known as Aeroflot ( or ; , , ), is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Russia. Aeroflot is headquartered in the Central Administrative Okrug, Moscow, with its hub being Sheremetyevo Interna ...

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' (). Later, the SKOGA was merged with the Beijing administration office on 1 January 1955. 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 (). On 27 February 1958, the Civil Aviation Agency was transferred to the

. Later, the Agency ratified the ''Report for the Opinions of System Devolving'' () 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. 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. Ilyushin Il-62 2026 CAAC SVO 19

In 1963, China purchased six

Vickers Viscount The Vickers Viscount is a retired British medium-range turboprop airliner first flown in 1948 by Vickers-Armstrongs. A design requirement from the Brabazon Committee, it entered service in 1953 and was the first turboprop-powered airliner. T ...

aircraft from Great Britain, followed in 1971 by the purchase of four Hawker Siddeley Trident aircraft from

Pakistan International Airlines Pakistan International Airlines, commonly known as PIA, is the flag carrier of Pakistan. With its primary hub at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, the airline also operates from its secondary hubs at Allama Iqbal International Airport ...

. In August 1971, the airline purchased six Trident 2Es directly from Hawker Siddeley. The country also placed provisional orders for three

Concorde Concorde () is a retired Anglo-French supersonic airliner jointly developed and manufactured by Sud Aviation and the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC). Studies started in 1954, and France and the United Kingdom signed a treaty establishin ...

aircraft. With the 1972 Nixon visit to China, the country ordered 10

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an early American long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype, the initial first flew on Decembe ...

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-built

Ilyushin Il-62 The Ilyushin Il-62 (; NATO reporting name: Classic) is a Soviet Union, Soviet long-range Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body jetliner conceived in 1960 by Ilyushin. As a successor to the popular turboprop Ilyushin Il-18, Il-18 and with capacit ...

aircraft were used on long range routes during the 1970s and 1980s. 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. Some administrative works were still under the People's Liberation Army and the air controlling was managed by PLA General Stuff Department and Air Force Command. On 30 January 1987, the State Council ratified the ''Report for the Reform Solution and Executive Steps of the Civil Aviation System Administration System'' (). 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 airline CAAC was divided into a number of individual air carriers, many of them named after the region of China where it had its hub. 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. On 11 March 2019, the CAAC was the first civil aviation authority to ground the

Boeing 737 MAX The Boeing 737 MAX is a series of narrow-body aircraft developed by Boeing Commercial Airplanes as the fourth generation of the Boeing 737. It succeeds the Boeing 737 Next Generation and incorporates more efficient CFM International LEAP engin ...

. After so doing, most of the world's aviation authorities grounded the MAX, including the European Union Aviation Safety Agency the next day. It took the US

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...

until 13 March to ground the MAX. Aviation commentators saw this as having bolstered the global reputation of the CAAC at the expense of the FAA. After the MAX was cleared to return by the FAA in November 2020, the CAAC reiterated that there "is no set timetable" to lifting the MAX grounding in China. In early August 2021, a MAX made a test flight in Shanghai for validation. 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.

Current role

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 also issues frequent operation data and notices. CAAC administers China's no-fly list.

List of directors

List of Directors of the Civil Aviation Administration of China:

Affiliate subsidiaries

* Air Traffic Administration Bureau (ATMB) in

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

* Civil Aviation University of China (CAUC) in

* Civil Aviation Flight University of China (CAFUC) in Guanghan * Civil Aviation Management Institute of China (CAMIC) in Beijing * China Academy of Civil Aviation Science and Technology — Center of Aviation Safety Technology, CAAC in Beijing * CAAC Second Research Institute in

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

* China Civil Aviation Publishing Press in Beijing * Civil Aviation Medical Center — Civil Aviation General Hospital in Beijing * CAAC Settlement Center in Beijing * CAAC Information Center in Beijing * CAAC Audition Center in Beijing * Capital Airports Holdings Limited (CAH) in Beijing * CAAC International Cooperation and Service Center in Beijing * China Airport Construction Corporation (CACC) in Beijing * China Civil Aviation Engine Airworthiness Audition Center * Flight Inspection Center of CAAC in Beijing * CAAC Museum

References

External links