Pilots on flights between the mainland and Hong Kong will not have to calculate two different sets of measurements once an agreement with the mainland to replace the metric system with the more popular imperial method comes into effect - at least for the southern part of the Pearl River Delta.
Varying measurement units in different air zones have long caused headaches for pilots and air traffic control officers, who have to convert important data such as wind speed and altitude, increasing their workload and weighing on safety.
But in the coming decade, the southern part of the delta - including airports in Shenzhen and Zhuhai - will standardise measurements with Hong Kong's, which like most of the aviation world, plots distances in feet, the Civil Aviation Department says.
The move is aimed at smoothing management of the region's air traffic, which is expected to nearly double from 2,700 flights an hour now to 5,000 by 2020.
Civil aviation director general Norman Lo Shung-man did not say when the new arrangement would start, only that the parties had reached 'consensus'.
Standardisation of the aviation measurement system between Hong Kong and the mainland has been a touchy subject as to who should adopt whose system.
