China's satellite navigation system to expand coverage by 2020

BEIJING: China's Beidou satellite navigation system, regarded as a rival to America's global positioning system (GPS), will be fully operational worldwide by 2020, a top official said today.

The Beidou system has been successfully tested in the general aviation sector, which includes all civil aviation operations other than scheduled air services, as well as by general aircraft including helicopters and private jets, Li Jian, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, was quoted as saying by state-run news agency Xinhua.

"We are promoting the Beidou system up to the standards of International Civil Aviation Organization [ICAO], and will gradually apply it to carriers," Li told an international forum on aviation security in Beijing.

Currently there are four satellite navigation systems in the world, the US GPS and Russian GLONASS, as well as the European Galileo and Beidou, which are still being developed.