(Yicai Global) April 18 -- China's civil aviation regulator has broken with  its traditional system of "one carrier for each route" rule in a new  round of domestic airlines' applications for European and US routes, as  part of efforts to spice up the competition. 

The Civil Aviation Administration of China has been reviewing a new round  of applications and Air China will join China Eastern Airlines in flying  the Shanghai-to-London route for a period of three years, the regulator  said on its website.

The CAAC normally adheres  to its rule of only allowing one Chinese carrier to operate on one  intercontinental route from China to a European or US city excluding  Moscow. Air China has flown the Beijing-to-New York route without having  to deal with competition from other domestic firms, for example.

The CAAC adopted this policy when its airlines were rather weak so as to  avoid competition between them and help them to compete with foreign  carriers, industry insider Lin Zhijie told Yicai Global.

The  regulator has also brought in a new rating system to help them with  route allocation and ensure fairness. The mechanism uses 16 indicators  including consumer interests, hub airport development, traffic rights  usage efficiency, and quality of operations. Carriers with high scores  can gain traffic rights. 

Those with a strong  transport network, high operational efficiency, good security and  services would often take the lead in the ratings, Lin said. 

China Southern Airlines and six other firms applied for the Shanghai-London  route besides Air China in this round but none of them met the  requirements. 

Beijing-Paris route is also a  popular choice. Air China, China Eastern Airlines, China Southern  Airlines, Juneyao Airlines and Beijing Capital Airlines have all applied  for it, and are waiting for the outcome of the CAAC review.

Editor: William Clegg