Passengers are being warned there may be a fare rise on the Central-Tsim Sha Tsui route - a move that comes less than two weeks after Star Ferry applied for a 23 per cent ticket price increase on two other routes.
Company managing director Frankie Yick Chi-ming said the more popular route had lost 15 per cent of its passengers after the pier in Central moved to the less convenient spot near the outlying islands pier, and a bridge connecting the new pier to office buildings had not helped.
'We haven't yet applied for a fare rise, but as I said before, the pressure was there,' Mr Yick said.
He expected revenue might drop further when the public bus terminus outside the Tsim Sha Tsui Star Ferry pier moves to the East Tsim Sha Tsui KCR station in 2009.
The ferry operator had demanded to increase fares on two of its routes - Hung Hom to Central and Hung Hom to Wan Chai - citing an accumulated loss of HK$10 million since it took over the businesses in 1999.
Mr Yick said fares had not been raised in eight years.