【英语中国】“黑飞”搅乱中国领空

There are two private-jet markets in China: the official one and the unofficial one.

Officially, the private-jet market is tiny and flights are tightly regulated by the government.

Unofficially, the private-jet business is burgeoning and the skies above the mainland are increasingly crowded by rogue 'hei fei' of illegal black flights.

According to an article in Time, it costs less to pay the fine for an illegal black flight than it does to file an official flight-plan application with the government. The result, Time says, is 'pandemonium' when the flights crop up on airport radar screens, along with the occasional UFO sighting that turns out to be a private jet.

Right now, China has only 200 private aircraft, according to official estimates. That pales in comparison to the more than 100,000 private jets buzzing over U.S. skies, even after the global financial crisis.

But China's private jet-set is expanding rapidly. Shanghai this week hosted the country's first Private Jet Expo, where the new super-rich and companies could shop for a new set of wings.

An article in the Global Times says the three-day expo, at Hongqiao International Airport in Shanghai, featured a Gulfstream 450 and Diamond DA40. Despite the country's stiff new taxes on luxury items, private jets apparently haven't been included.

Some Chinese, however, worry about the pollution from private jets, which have a much larger carbon footprint per passenger than commercial planes.

Zhang Yue, CEO of Broad Air Conditioning Co. Ltd, said he isn't using his two private jets much anymore since hearing that it takes eight trees 60 years to absorb the carbon dioxide from a private flight from Changsha to Beijing. 'Since I've known these figures, taking trips on my jet belonged to a past,' he told the Global Times.

Apparently, he is in the minority.

When do you think China will overtake the U.S. private-jet market?

国的私人飞机市场分为两个：官方的和非官方的。

官方私人飞机市场很小，而且飞行受到政府的严格管控。

而非官方的私人飞机业务则方兴未艾，非法的“黑飞”使得中国大陆的天空越来越拥挤。

据美国《时代》周刊(Time)的一篇文章说，与向政府正式提交飞行计划申请的成本相比，非法黑飞的罚款要少得多。其结果是，机场的雷达屏幕上有时会出现看似UFO的不明飞行物，而它实际上却是一架私人飞机，这往往会引发“一片混乱”。

据官方估计，目前中国仅有200架私人飞机。而在美国，即使在全球金融危机过后，依然有10万余架私人飞机在天空翱翔。

但是中国的私人飞机正在飞速发展。本周上海主办了中国首次私人飞机展览会，新兴的超级富翁和大公司可以借此采购一批新飞机了。

据《环球时报》报道，在上海虹桥国际机场为期三天的展览会上，Gulfstream 450和Diamond DA40为主要展示机型。尽管中国对奢侈品有很严格的税收规定，但私人飞机显然还不包括在内。

然而，有些中国人对私人飞机的污染问题颇为担忧，私人飞机每位乘客的碳足迹大大高于普通商务飞机。

远大空调有限公司的董事长张跃说，自从听说一架私人飞机从长沙飞到北京所排放的二氧化碳需要8棵树花60年的时间才能吸收后，就不再使用他的两架私人飞机了。他对《环球时报》说，自从我知道了这些数据，我的私人飞机旅行就成了过去时。

很显然，他仍是少数派。

您认为中国的私人飞机市场何时能赶上美国？