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HK airlines face price war on Taiwan route
Cathay, Dragonair under pressure after mainland orders 15pc cut in cross-strait fares

26 June 2010
South China Morning Post

Cathay Pacific Airways and Hong Kong Dragon Airlines (Dragonair) face a bruising price war on the lucrative Hong Kong-Taiwan route after mainland carriers were ordered to cut cross-strait ticket prices.

Li Jiaxiang, the minister in charge of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said last week fares for direct flights should be lowered by up to 15 per cent as part of a move to increase cross-strait transport ties.

Direct flight services between the mainland and the island have increased to 380 flights per week after being launched two years ago, and 40 will be added shortly. The governments on both sides of the strait are committed to more direct flights as economic ties improve.

"Air fares on routes to Taiwan will be under pressure in the short term," said James Tong, Dragonair's chief executive, at the carrier's 25th anniversary celebration. "But ticket prices and demand will be stable over the longer term as total traffic demand becomes enlarged."

A Cathay spokesman said the airlines would ensure its fares remained competitive. "Air fares are determined by market supply and demand," the spokesman added.

Air service capacity between Hong Kong and Taiwan has dropped 30 per cent since the start of direct flights in July 2008, said Law Cheung-kwok, an associate director of the Aviation Policy & Research Centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"It's easier said than done [for Hong Kong carriers] to cash in on additional market demand driven by direct flights," Law said. "Hong Kong carriers can only benefit from the increasing number of locals visiting Taiwan due to the simplified visa application to Taiwan but not the other way round."

The Hong Kong-Taipei route is served by Cathay, Dragonair, China Airlines and Eva Air, which respectively operate 12, four, 12 and seven flights per day. The Hong Kong-Kaohsiung route is operated by Dragonair, China Airlines and Mandarin Airlines, with seven to eight flights per day among them.

However, shorter flight and transit times have made direct flights the natural winner over the traditional transit through Hong Kong.

Dragonair and Cathay were now lobbying the Shanghai government to let them land at Hongqiao Airport, which is closer to the city's centre than the Pudong International Airport, Tong said.

They will study the infrastructure and capacity of Hongqiao and discuss with the Civil Aviation Administration of China about flight plans.

China Airlines' debut flight to Hongqiao from the Taipei Songshan Airport on June 13 has put pressure on the Hong Kong carriers to improve their services.

The 45-minute direct flight accompanied by easier connections to Shanghai's city centre makes the triangular route served by Hong Kong carriers less attractive. The transit time to Hongqiao is about one hour shorter than that to Pudong.

Dragonair saw the passenger volume on the Hong Kong-Shanghai route increase 40 per cent last month from May last year because of the World Expo and the lower comparative base. The carrier has deployed larger aircraft - an Airbus 330, against an A320 previously - to serve the route, resulting in a 10 to 20 per cent increase in capacity.

By 哈曼 from a Hong Kong discussion forum :

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/m.../DSC_2429a.jpg

Passengers, Flight Movements Reach New Highs in July
Press Release

HONG KONG, 14 August 2011 – Passenger traffic and flight movements at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) continued to report solid growth in July, increasing 5.7% and 8.1% respectively from a year ago to new single-month records of 5.0 million and 28,880. Cargo throughput however continued to show weakness and recorded a year-on-year decline of 6.1% to 341,000 tonnes.

The growth in passenger traffic was driven mainly by visitor traffic, which registered 10% growth over the same period last year. Passenger traffic to/ from South East Asia also performed particularly well.

The cargo decline was attributed to the 8% drop in export volume and 9% drop in import volume. Transshipments grew by 2% year on year, while Taiwan experienced a double-digit drop.

Stanley Hui Hon-chung, Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, said July's traffic performance carried on the recent trend of steady passenger growth and relatively weaker cargo throughput. He added, "As summer is the traditional peak season for leisure travel, we expect passenger growth will continue in August. Meanwhile, in view of the recent changes and volatility in the global financial market, including the downgrade of the US government's credit rating by Standard & Poor's (S&P), we will stay alert and closely monitor the situation in the coming months."

Mr Hui also noted HKIA has further expanded its upstream check-in service in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. "We just added Macau Taipa as our fifth upstream check-in ferry point in late July, and we also opened two new city check-in facilities at Shenzhen Futian Coach Station and Shenzhen Grand Theatre in August," he said.

This means passengers of specific airlines can obtain their boarding passes at the two city check-in facilities in Shenzhen before taking the shuttle buses or limousines operating regularly around the hour between these facilities and HKIA for travelling on international flights. At Taipa ferry pier, passengers can also check their bags, making their journey more comfortable. "The extension of the check-in services to more points in Shenzhen and Macau will provide better and more convenient service to passengers who choose to travel through the extensive network of international air services that HKIA has to offer," Mr Hui added.

HKIA's cross-boundary transport network currently covers eight ferry ports and 115 coach destinations in the PRD, moving about 6,300 passengers by ferry and 5,000 passengers by coach or limousine each day.

For the first seven months of the year, the airport handled 30.8 million passengers and 191,375 flight movements in total, up 5.7% and 11.5% year on year respectively. Cargo registered a small decrease of 2.9% when compared with the corresponding period a year ago, amounting to 2.3 million tonnes.

On a rolling 12-month basis, flight movements registered a year-on-year increase of 12.7%, amounting to 326,300 movements. Passenger traffic rose 7.5% to 52.6 million and cargo tonnage increased 3.3% to 4.1 million.

I'm not a big fan of the 'bandit mask' on these new 787s. Thanks for sharing these though; rare to see aviation pics around these parts anymore.

Nice pics! Don't you have any new construction photos lately? Can we see it?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dac150 (Post 7740308)

I'm not a big fan of the 'bandit mask' on these new 787s. Thanks for sharing these though; rare to see aviation pics around these parts anymore.

That's an A350.

Quote:

Originally Posted by N830MH (Post 7751874)

Nice pics! Don't you have any new construction photos lately? Can we see it?

This is the new island being reclaimed east of the airport for the new bridge to Macau :

http://www.globalphotos.org/southkor...2/IMG_9864.jpg

http://www.globalphotos.org/southkor...2/IMG_9867.jpg

The pics of the new island look surreal against the mountain backdrop .
Do you know how tall those buildings are in the background?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Speculator (Post 7751997)

That's an A350.

Gotcha … at the glance they look pretty similar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobdreamz (Post 7752270)

The pics of the new island look surreal against the mountain backdrop .
Do you know how tall those buildings are in the background?

A bit under a year ago I stayed in the Novatel Citygate which is right next to all of those tall buildings. I was on the 14th floor, I think...and they towered over me by a lot! I didn't have much time to walk around and thus didn't get an accurate floor count, but I'd guess the 40-50 story range if not taller. It's an impressive little area. Lots of little restaurants and a school or two around there. The buildings themselves feel a bit suburban given that they're basically very tall garden apartment homes, but there's a massive pedestrian bridge across the airport freeway connecting to a big mall with a metro line station...super convenient to get into Kowloon and Hong Kong Island.

That island has come along way since I was last in the area. I still can't believe that they're building a bridge all the way to Macau! It will be well used, of course, but it's an impressive feat nonetheless.

Ever been in hongkong, it's beautiful.

Quote:

Originally Posted by KeanWaterBottle (Post 7836459)

Ever been in hongkong, it's beautiful.

and recent years some cities of China developed faster and faster, such as GuangZhou, ShenZhen, ShangHai, BeiJing

Quote:

Originally Posted by hkskyline (Post 7875049)

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4300/...48014343_h.jpg Cathay Pacific B-LRP by Howard Pulling, on Flickr

Nice shots! Thanks for sharing this. :)