Why are there no flights in China after 12 in the afternoon?

Generally speaking, domestic flights will not take off after 12 pm, but many international flights will take off at midnight. For example, most flights from Shanghai to Europe and the Middle East take off at midnight.

Flights that take off after 12 in the afternoon are called "red-eye flights". However, such flights are now basically banned in China. The biggest reason is for security reasons. To this end, the Civil Aviation Administration issued the Notice on Reiterating the Prohibition of Domestic Flights Crossing Zero.

Why is the red-eye flight unsafe?

The first is low visibility and high accident rate. Many hidden air crashes will happen when passengers find smoke from the engine or a rainbow behind the wing. At this time, it was dark outside and nothing could be seen, so it was difficult to find an unidentified air crash.

Secondly, people on the ground and on the plane, because of lack of sleep, the body's own physiological response to avoid risks has declined. The ability to deal with and judge emergencies is declining.

Thirdly, whether you can survive the air crash depends on the impact of the crash and the escape speed of the people on board. At night, the vigilance is reduced and it is not easy to escape.

Finally, red-eye flights are mainly aimed at international flights. In 2002, the Civil Aviation Administration issued a notice prohibiting any domestic flights from taking off and landing at zero hours. Later, the ban was extended in 2006 and lifted in 2008. This is basically a compromise between economic interests and the surge in the number of air passengers. Fortunately, because the ban has been implemented for so many years, major airlines still have no habit of taking off and landing at zero hours.

There is another reason that has become less important. In the past midnight, there was no strong market demand for domestic flights, so there was no need to fly. However, with the rapid development of China's aviation industry in recent years, the voice of restoring zero-crossing operation of domestic flights is getting higher and higher. By 2005, China Civil Aviation began to relax the ban on red-eye flights, allowing domestic flights to operate from 0: 00 to 2: 00 in the peak season (summer vacation, Spring Festival and other holidays), and still banning zero flights at other times. In this way, the ban on flying over zero has continued to this day.

This is also the reason why domestic flights do not take off after 12 in the afternoon.