Here is some more recent Waterfront Air news. Looking for the right Chinese partner!
Seaplane Operator Applying For Chinese AOC
AWIN First Mar 21 , 2011
Leithen Francis SINGAPORE
Start-up seaplane operator Waterfront Air is planning to launch operations in southern China next year and is working to get regulatory approvals and secure a large Chinese investor.
The company, which is to have its main base in Shenzhen, is working to get regulatory approval from the Shenzhen and Guangzhou governments, as well as from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), says Peter de Kantzow, Waterfront Air director and co-founder. “We could be operational next year,” says de Kantzow, who is the son of Sydney de Kantzow, the Australian pilot who co-founded Cathay Pacific Airways as well as Macau Air Transport, a seaplane operator that was flying until the early 1960s.
Waterfront Air plans to operate 15-passenger de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter floatplanes from Shenzhen Airport ’s marine terminal to destinations in southern China , including islands off Guangzhou .
Chinese law requires that local carriers be majority Chinese-owned, so de Kantzow says they are seeking a large Chinese company to be a strategic investor that can support the business throughout China . He says it is important in China for an airline to have a Chinese partner in each place that it serves. Rather than have a myriad of local partners, Waterfront Air aims to have one large Chinese partner, he adds. Waterfront Air has had discussions with several Chinese property developers, that are interested in investing in an airline, but Waterfront Air has yet to decide on a partner and is still looking, says de Kantzow. In some other Asian countries, such as Thailand and the Philippines , property developers invest in floatplane operations, because air connectivity helps to boost a property development’s value.