600ft-lb
I didn't suggest there wasn't competition in HKG. But isn't this a 'free' market all the airlines operate in ? Strongest survive, the weakest fade away ? Why would they be so scared of a minnow turning up with a 'capital light' investment.
No it’s not a free market. Just as no Hong Kong airline can set up a foreign controlled international airline in Australia, neither can a foreign airline do the same in Hong Kong. No Hong Kong carrier has anything to be scared about. All they have insisted upon is the laws governing airline ownership in Hong Kong be upheld. If the shoe was on the other foot I can assure you Qantas would be demanding the same from the Australian Federal Government. I still have memories of Qantas squealing like stuffed pigs when Singapore Airlines wanted to operate from Australia to the USA.
Let us in or else ? Don't protect your local market or else ? Shoe, other foot, etc.
With all due respect, you clearly have no clue how the negotiation of Bilateral Air Service Agreements are conducted and how they operate. QF through the federal government have tried to blackmail Hong Kong into changing Hong Kong’s airline ownerships laws by blocking any further traffic rights to Hong Kong carriers into Australia. What QF was really trying to do though was circumvent Australia’s Bilateral Air Service agreement with Hong Kong by gaining direct access to Hong Kong’s Air Service agreements with other countries. This is something that clearly isn’t available to foreign carriers in Australia so why should it be available to Australian carriers in Hong Kong? QF through their lobbying of the Federal Government started this fight not Hong Kong. Hong Kong will try to sought it out diplomatically with Australia. I’m sure that sane heads will prevail from Australia but if they don’t Hong Kong will have little option but to refer it to the Chinese Central Government who will sought it out.
"At the end of the day the governments should look after the public interest, and expansion will provide more public interest. If there is more capacity, we will take advantage of that."
-Ivan Chu
Totally irrelevant to this debate. Ivan was making a comment about the building of the third runway in Hong Kong.