Billionaire businesswoman Pansy Ho hopes to resurrect Jetstar Hong Kong after the budget airline’s failure to gain regulatory approval nearly two years ago.
Ms Ho, daughter of Hong Kong gaming billionaire Stanley Ho, said she hoped the airline would be able to fly. The timing was right, given increased airport infrastructure development in Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen, she said. “We have spent quite an amount of time and investment in trying to procure that opportunity,” Bangkok-based Ms Ho told The Australian.
Jetstar Hong Kong was *planned as a low-fare carrier, flying short-haul services within five hours of Hong Kong to Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.
Ms Ho was appointed chairman in 2013, as her company Shun Tak Holdings was an equal third shareholder in the budget carrier, which went through the licence application process that year. Other partners were Qantas and China Eastern.
“I think it might have been the wrong timing and I believe there might still be opportunities. Actually the partners have kept up communication,” Ms Ho said.
“We intend to (take) a close look in the future as to the overall development. If the opportunity presents itself, I think the three partners are keen to work together. We have to wait for something to happen but we have kept in contact.
“So I believe there will be opportunities about, simply because the whole region where we are operating out of is also evolving.”
Last year Jetstar chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka told The Australian she was still keen on a Jetstar Hong Kong operation but felt Jetstar had been “outplayed by Cathay” in its attempts to get rights to fly out of Hong Kong.
“We can fly into Hong Kong, but we can’t have an airline based in Hong Kong,” she said. “Everyone of our Asian competitor airlines flies into Hong Kong — from Japan, Vietnam and from Singapore — but we can’t be based in Hong Kong.”
She said it was a “quirk of the rules” that Jetstar was not allowed to be based there. “There are a deep-seated set of technical reasons why we are not allowed to fly based in Hong Kong.
“However, we would hope that over time, as the airport runway access improves, and they have more capacity, that we would be more successful.”
Asked if she had given up on having a Hong Kong base Ms Hrdlicka said: “You never say never in this business.”
She said “bringing Asia to its potential” would be an important part of Jetstar’s strategy for the next five years. But recently a Jetstar spokesman said: “We continue to believe there are significant opportunities for low-fare travel across the region, but we don’t have any plans to again look at establishing Jetstar Hong Kong.
“China Eastern Airlines and Shun Tak remain close partners of the Qantas Group.”
But Ms Ho said an initiative by the central government for a regional collaboration within the Guangdong Province would create a “really huge metropolitan area including Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen”. “I think that bay area of Guangdong development ... in terms of aviation ... must present oppor*tunities.”
Additional reporting: Glenda Korporaal
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