Macau looks like a tough town for low-cost transport providers, and not just because they must compete against effective monopolies and duopolies.
Last year, it was budget airline Viva Macau that went bust, blaming the Macau government for unjustly cancelling its operating licence and restoring flagship carrier Air Macau's de facto monopoly.
On Wednesday, it was start-up ferry operator Macao Dragon, which fell into liquidation, blaming the Macau government for capping the number of passengers it was allowed to carry at just 65 per cent of its capacity. 'Although the Macau government has promised to lift these caps, they have not yet done so and we are now unable to run the business on a viable basis. The circumstances have made it impossible for us to continue operations,' Macao Dragon said in a statement.
But Macau's apparent hostility to start-ups is not all that it seems.
In the case of Viva, the airline had been propped up through the financial crisis by a bailout loan of 200 million patacas issued by the government.
Macao Dragon was set up in 2006 by shipping magnate David Liang Chong-hou, whose family had previously been involved in the Hong Kong-to-Macau ferry business.