Air Macau takes an urgent look at buying wide-body aircraft

Air Macau has stepped up its ongoing study of whether to add a wide-body passenger aircraft to its fleet after losing business to Dragonair along the Hong Kong-Taipei route.

The airline is considering adding at least one Airbus Industrie A330, which is almost 50 per cent larger than its biggest jet, although a decision would not be made for some time.

In July, Dragonair launched a single-plane one-stop service between Taipei and Shanghai via Hong Kong using an Airbus A330-300. Air Macau since then has seen demand decline for its peak-time services.

An estimated 70 per cent of Air Macau's revenue comes from Taiwanese passengers travelling to and from the mainland via its hub in Macau. The issue of finding a competitive balance with its sister company Dragonair - both of which are controlled by Hong Kong-listed China National Aviation Co - has been put on the front burner by senior management.

'It's a very preliminary study and I would say that the decision could go in either direction,' an Air Macau source said. 'We have actually been evaluating the plan of adding wide-body aircraft to our fleet since our founding, but this consideration has now become more acute since Dragonair's launch of flights to Taipei.'

While the source said Air Macau's load factors on its Macau-Taipei route had not suffered greatly since Dragonair began its new service in July, the carrier was losing business at peak times in the morning and late afternoon when business travellers were most likely to fly.