Increasing aviation competition won’t stop travellers coming to Hong Kong, former Cathay boss says

Tony Tyler, who was Cathay Pacific’s chief executive from 2007 to 2011, defended Hong Kong’s status as a premier international hub after warnings from Australian airline Qantas’ boss, Alan Joyce, about the changing landscape of air travel and the possibility that stronger competition would leave the city behind.

Tyler, 61, who led the International Air Transport Association for the past five years, said the underlying hub model worked.

“We’ve seen with Emirates it works. They’ve got such a strong network that they only need a couple of passengers from different routes to fill up another flight. The success of the Cathay Pacific and Hong Kong model is built on that,” Tyler said.

Explaining how hubs will evolve in the face of rival airports starting non-stop flights, he said: “Yes, you are going to lose share when another airport puts on a new non-stop flight, but then you find new demand – you’ve got growth going on all the time. If you are smart you are adding spokes to your new cities to generate new traffic flows.”