PARIS, France: China has banned for 40 days civil aviation from a large airspace off Shanghai without specifying the reasons, according to a notice to aviators published by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
The aviation notice (NOTAM) announcing the access restriction was posted online on March 27 at 1150 GMT and took effect a few hours later.
It will remain in place until May 6 and affects an area twice the size of Taiwan a few hundred kilometres north of the island, covering 73,000 square kilometres in total.
China has not provided any explanation for the ban as of April 8, but “there is no possible use other than military” for this type of airspace restriction, maritime security expert Benjamin Blandin told AFP.
“It could be to fire missiles, carry out air exercises, etc. We don´t know,” he added.
This is “the very first time” that China has restricted access to its airspace in a way that is “so sudden, geographically extensive, prolonged over time, and so poorly documented”, according to Blandin, a researcher at Taiwan´s Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR).
Aviation and defence consultant for Aviation NXT, Xavier Tytelman, also believes that the restriction is “out of the ordinary” in terms of its size, duration and the lack of any limits on altitude, either high or low.
NOTAMs are intended to inform aviators of unusual circumstances affecting certain airspaces.
They are generally issued ahead of military exercises or during
exceptional events such as fires or volcanic
eruptions.
