Say, in case of war, would it be viable for the PLA to charter and/or temporarily possess passenger and cargo aircrafts from civilian airliners for troop and equipment transportation?
The idea would be to facilitiate and surge the transportation speed and capacity of PLA troops and equipment from their bases to staging locations near or at the frontlines. Since the PLAAF's own airlifter fleet is still pretty limited by the number of airlifters available, pressing passenger and cargo jetliners from civilian airlines for military airlifting could potentially alleviate the problem.
The US has a number of charter airlines that the US military have been chartering their services for the transportation of American troops and equipment between bases and regions across the world. China, meanwhile, is not known to operate any charter airlines.
As of late June 2021, China (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) has around 3900 civilian jetliners. Around 3700 of which are passenger aircrafts, while nearly 190 of which are cargo aircrafts.
Although, need to stress that when war breaks out in the WestPac over the AR of Taiwan, and that the US and NATO directly intervene in the conflict, then China can choose to "nationalize" all the Boeing and Airbus jetliners that are present in China, just like what Russia did right after the start of the war in Ukraine. Any international lessors of the planes operated by Chinese airlines can forget about wanting it back.
Plus, even if 3/4 of these civilian aircrafts in China have been rendered inoperable due to lack of support for operation and maintenance from Boeing and Airbus due to the expected sanctions following the start of AR and war in the WestPac, plus the cannibalization of useful spare parts for use between aircrafts, there would still be close to 1000 passenger and cargo aircrafts available.
However, before this method can be taken as a solution, China must make sure that key onboard avionics and systems can still function without relying on the Western systems, such as the onboard navigation. But at least, we know that all civilian aircrafts in China must be installed with Beidou navigation system onboard by 2024, so that's a relief I suppose...
