China will relax its regulations for night flights reports the Shanghai Daily. Bad news for residents living close to airports, but good news for travellers. Flights are now allowed to take off or arrive from 6 AM in the morning until 2 AM at night. But the change will likely not affect schedules for the next 6 months, because these have already been made. Hopefully there will finally be late night flights from Beijing to Shanghai, so you can have an (early) dinner in Beijing and still make it home at night in Shanghai.

The stated reason for the change is that the fleets of Chinese airlines are increasing rapidly, and more timeslots are needed. The other reason mentioned is that there have been ‘recent years of safe operation’ (the ban for night flights was originally introduced because of safety reasons). Years of safe operation? The last plane crash in China was only 15 months ago (China Eastern from Baotou to Shanghai)!