Dragonslaver
18th Apr 2003, 17:12
Just when Dragonair thought things couldn't get any worse.....
Straits Times, Apr 18 2003
"HONGKONG - Cathay Pacific Airways yesterday won clearance from Hongkong to fly into mainland China after more than a decade-long absence, defeating an aggressive effort by its partner-turned-rival Dragonair to keep it out.
Hongkong's Air Transport Licensing Authority said Dragonair had overstated how much business it would lose and acknowledged it was letting Cathay get onto Dragonair's 'golden routes' between Hongkong and Shanghai, Beijing and Xiamen.
Rebuking both sides for a public brawl, the regulators said a hearing on the routes bore 'greater resemblance to a family altercation than to cool commercial appraisal of cost and consequence'.
While Cathay praised the 'first step' in its effort to return to the mainland, it still needs Hongkong and Chinese aviation authorities to modify their air services agreement. Hongkong officials could not say how long that might take.
'Not only will it be a boost for Hongkong's status as an aviation hub, it will bring many more passengers through Hongkong and boost the local economy, and also promote tourism in the Chinese mainland,' said Cathay's chief operating officer Philip Chen.
Dragonair chief executive Stanley Hui said the ruling would lead to 'financial devastation' for his firm, which was exploring legal options.
The regulators agreed with Cathay's contention that its entry into the mainland could increase the amount of air travel by expanding the market, rejecting Dragonair's projection of a 'zero-sum game', in which every gain by Cathay would be a loss to Dragonair.
The licensing authority did not give Cathay everything it wanted, however.
Cathay had asked for four daily flights to Shanghai but will get just three, and it wanted one flight daily to Xiamen but can have just three a week.
The hearing began in January and dragged on long enough that it had to be dropped for a few weeks, only to resume last month. The airlines peppered one another with verbal attacks and employed PR campaigns that were unusually vociferous for the normally staid Hongkong business community.
Cathay has not flown into mainland China since giving up its routes there in the early 1990s to Dragonair, which in many ways has been viewed as a corporate child of Cathay.
They became competitors last year when Dragonair got onto the lucrative Hongkong-Taipei route, ending an arrangement where just one Hongkong-based carrier could serve any one route out of the territory. -- AP"
Straits Times, Apr 18 2003
"HONGKONG - Cathay Pacific Airways yesterday won clearance from Hongkong to fly into mainland China after more than a decade-long absence, defeating an aggressive effort by its partner-turned-rival Dragonair to keep it out.
Hongkong's Air Transport Licensing Authority said Dragonair had overstated how much business it would lose and acknowledged it was letting Cathay get onto Dragonair's 'golden routes' between Hongkong and Shanghai, Beijing and Xiamen.
Rebuking both sides for a public brawl, the regulators said a hearing on the routes bore 'greater resemblance to a family altercation than to cool commercial appraisal of cost and consequence'.
While Cathay praised the 'first step' in its effort to return to the mainland, it still needs Hongkong and Chinese aviation authorities to modify their air services agreement. Hongkong officials could not say how long that might take.
'Not only will it be a boost for Hongkong's status as an aviation hub, it will bring many more passengers through Hongkong and boost the local economy, and also promote tourism in the Chinese mainland,' said Cathay's chief operating officer Philip Chen.
Dragonair chief executive Stanley Hui said the ruling would lead to 'financial devastation' for his firm, which was exploring legal options.
The regulators agreed with Cathay's contention that its entry into the mainland could increase the amount of air travel by expanding the market, rejecting Dragonair's projection of a 'zero-sum game', in which every gain by Cathay would be a loss to Dragonair.
The licensing authority did not give Cathay everything it wanted, however.
Cathay had asked for four daily flights to Shanghai but will get just three, and it wanted one flight daily to Xiamen but can have just three a week.
The hearing began in January and dragged on long enough that it had to be dropped for a few weeks, only to resume last month. The airlines peppered one another with verbal attacks and employed PR campaigns that were unusually vociferous for the normally staid Hongkong business community.
Cathay has not flown into mainland China since giving up its routes there in the early 1990s to Dragonair, which in many ways has been viewed as a corporate child of Cathay.
They became competitors last year when Dragonair got onto the lucrative Hongkong-Taipei route, ending an arrangement where just one Hongkong-based carrier could serve any one route out of the territory. -- AP"