HK seals air deals with four nations
Pacts open skies for more direct flights while the agreement with Bahrain also allows carriers extra fifth freedom rights
The liberalisation of Hong Kong's aviation regime has taken another step forward with the Economic Development and Labour Bureau signing four small deals with Singapore, Germany, Mexico and Bahrain, government negotiators revealed yesterday.
The agreements made small advances on the number of direct flights allowed in previous bilateral pacts, but only the Bahraini deal gave carriers more fifth freedom rights, the ability to pick up and fly passengers and cargo to third destinations outside the countries.
A provisional deal was agreed with Singapore to lift all restrictions on direct flights between the Lion City and Hong Kong, which the Hong Kong negotiating team said would boost the volume of low-cost carrier traffic on the route.
However, not all of the 107 weekly flights under the present agreement are being utilised and budget carriers such as AirAsia have said the main reason they are not flying to Hong Kong is the high cost of calling at the airport, not a lack of bilateral rights. No expansion of cargo services was agreed.
'The Singapore deal is in line with the government's mandate to lift restrictions on direct flights with willing partners,' an industry source said. '[The government] was more open to expansion of passenger flights because of the possibility of cargo diversion.'
The German deal was perhaps the most disappointing of the four, with the number of weekly passenger flights expanding by two to 17 for each side. Weekly cargo flights were expanded by two to 12, but the new flights were already being offered on an extra-bilateral basis.
'Hong Kong was absolutely prepared to open the skies, but the Germans had their own considerations,' lead negotiator Wilson Fung Wing-yip said. 'We hope to meet again at the end of the year and expand the cargo services.'
Dragonair, in particular, will be disappointed by the result as it had been pressing for more cargo rights to Germany.
The Bahraini deal threw open direct passenger and cargo flights for carriers from both nations; only Cathay Pacific and Gulf Air currently serve the route. It added one beyond point for each country, which Cathay will use to serve Beirut and Gulf Air will use for Singapore.
Carriers were given unlimited direct passenger and cargo services to Mexico, but since no airline connects the markets - mainly because no aircraft has the range to fly beyond Acapulco on the west coast without a fuel stop - the advance is not expected to be utilised.
There was, however, an expansion of code-share rights which could help Hong Kong carriers serve Mexico through Canada or the United States.
The deals were struck with Bahrain on April 11, Mexico on April 28, and Germany on June 2. The Singapore deal remains provisional.
