[ad_1]
HONG KONG – Even as one Hong Kong airline disappears under pressure from the coronavirus pandemic after 35 years of operations, another is rising to take its place.
Greater Bay Airlines, which takes its name from Chinese President Xi Jinping’s pet project to integrate Hong Kong and Macao with Shenzhen, Guangzhou and other cities in Guangdong province, has started hiring staff and preparing paperwork and planes to fly. in the air. mid 2021.
Embodying the notion of the Greater Bay Area, the airline is the brainchild of Chinese real estate mogul Huang Chubiao, owner of Shenzhen-based Donghai Airlines.
“We know it comes at a time when aviation is facing this unprecedented crisis,” Stanley Hui Hong-chung, an industry veteran who advises Huang, told Nikkei Asia in a recent interview. “(But) he takes this project very seriously.”
Hui previously served as CEO of Dragonair, the airline that was later renamed Cathay Dragon, which Cathay Pacific Airways abruptly closed on October 21. He has also served as CEO of the Hong Kong Airport Authority and is currently an independent director of Air’s board. China, which in turn is a major shareholder in Cathay Pacific and Shenzhen Airlines.
Hui bases his optimism about the recovery of the local aviation market on his experience leading Dragonair through the SARS epidemic in 2003.
“The lawsuit dried up and it was very scary,” he said. “(But) the reality is that I believe that eventually these things will be overcome,” he added, expressing his faith in the emergence of effective vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 in the coming year.
Donghai Airlines, which launched cargo flights in 2006, switched to passenger operations in 2014 and now serves 54 cities, including international routes to Naypyidaw and Darwin, Australia, according to its website.
Donghai Airlines operates 23 Boeing 737-800 aircraft, according to its website, which lists a growth target of 80 aircraft by 2025. © AP
The entry of Huang, also known as Bill Wong, into Hong Kong aviation is a natural extension of the previous venture, with “a boost from the country’s political leadership in Greater Bay,” Hui said.
From Hui’s perspective as a 45-year industry veteran, “establishing a new airline is very different” from the challenges facing incumbents in the industry like Cathay amid the pandemic.
“It’s a very different situation compared to airlines that are so big,” he said. “Is [is an] unprecedented crisis, and they have to downsize … It is extremely painful for existing airlines. “
In preparation for the launch, Greater Bay Air signed a lease for three second-hand Boeing 737-800 narrow-body aircraft, the same model that Donghai operates, and plans to secure two more by the end of next year. It applied for an air operator certificate from Hong Kong in May.
The company aims to hire between 400 and 500 employees as part of the hiring drive launched in mid-October, shortly before Cathay announced it would cut 5,300 jobs in Hong Kong.
Hui said some former Cathay employees have filed applications. “It would be natural for people to be considered with the right skills,” he said.
The new airline intends to serve routes to China, East Asia and Southeast Asia, Hui said without specifying targets, though acknowledging that they are likely to overlap with some of the 46 routes served by Cathay Dragon.
Although Cathay Pacific Chairman Patrick Healy has said that he hopes Cathay and sister carrier Hong Kong Express will be able to take over most of those route rights, the Hong Kong government has said that any interested airline can apply to obtain them.
Huang Chubiao, left, and Stanley Hui. (Courtesy of Greater Bay Airlines)
“It is too early to speculate” on whether Greater Bay will compete for the rights, Hui said, noting that the company will first need a full set of operating licenses.
Hui and Huang have grown close while serving together as members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, Beijing’s main advisory body.
When asked if his personal networks will help the Great Bay take off, Hui said: “We all have to go through the exact same process no matter who he is and what he is. I would not play anything about so-called political connections.
[ad_2]
