Air HK eyes new aircraft as mainland routes expand
Air Hong Kong, the only all-cargo airline in the city, may buy between two and four aircraft, probably Airbus A300s, after winning the right to start serving the mainland next summer.
The airline leases one A300-600F from Cathay Pacific - which owns a 60 per cent stake in the carrier - that it uses to serve Shanghai five times a week.
Under an air services accord between Beijing and the Hong Kong government unveiled on Monday, Air Hong Kong also won the right to serve secondary cities in China so long as the routes included a stopover in either Beijing or Shanghai.
'Combination routes allow us to collect goods from more than one mainland city, enabling us to develop secondary cities,' said David Saechiu, chief operating officer of Air Hong Kong.
Such an arrangement is vital to cargo airlines launching service in secondary markets where the cargo volume is insufficient to justify point-to-point service.
Air Hong Kong has applied for the right to serve 21 mainland cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, Qingdao and Urumqi in Xinjiang, and plans to begin flights to eight to 10 destinations initially.
Air Hong Kong has a fleet of eight A300-600Fs. Mr Saechiu said the carrier would prefer to expand services using the same model to keep maintenance costs down.
However, shortly after Air Hong Kong declined in March to take up the last two options on its original order of A300Fs, Airbus closed its production line.
The closure was prompted by pressure on Airbus resources as it increased production of the A380 and development of the A350. This will force Air Hong Kong to look for used passenger jets it can convert.
