Levitating and hurtling toward a breakthrough

Conceivably, regional flight services in China may face tough competition in the next decade from China Railway Rolling Stock Corp Ltd, if the country's railway vehicle manufacturer overcomes all the technical barriers and pushes magnetic levitation or maglev trains (operational speed: 600 km per hour) into the market.

In October, the Ministry of Science and Technology decided to transfer certain key research projects to select State-owned enterprises, including CRRC. A high-speed test line for a maglev train, with a length of no less than 5 kilometers, is expected to be completed in Qingdao of East China's Shandong province by 2021.

"Even though our European rivals previously were trying to hold back our market expansion in developing wheel technology-based high-speed trains, they have failed and generally there is no European country capable of competing with China in this field," said Jia Limin, head of China's high-speed rail innovation program.