Air Macau - to be taken over by red-chip China National Aviation Corp (CNAC) - plans to launch four passenger routes in the second half of the year. After an extraordinary shareholders meeting yesterday, CNAC chairman Kong Dong said Air Macau would operate passenger services to Chengdu, Shijiazhuang and Xian on the mainland, and to Singapore. The airline is also in final stages of talks with the Shenzhen Airport Group on next month rolling out the first all-cargo service between the mainland and Taipei. It will offer two daily flights between Shenzhen and Taipei with a layover in Macau. Yesterday, shareholders approved the acquisition of 51 per cent in Air Macau by CNAC from its parent China National Aviation Corp Group, in exchange for some Hong Kong properties. CNAC's other main asset is 43.3 per cent of Dragonair, which flies mainly between Hong Kong and the mainland. Air Macau chairman Gu Tiefei would not give an estimate on how much traffic would be diverted from Dragonair to Air Macau after the launch of its Shenzhen-Taipei cargo route. But he believed the type of goods transported via Macau would be different from those sent via Hong Kong. This year would see Air Macau's cargo capacity more than double, while passenger capacity was expected to rise 15 per cent. It doubled net profit to HK$102.5 million in 2000, but last year it fell 28 per cent, to HK$73.8 million as costs rose and a tax holiday ended.
