Cathay Pacific on the march

“First, it underlines our faith in and commitment to Hong Kong as an aviation hub.

We think it has a fantastic future. Second, it was our seal of approval – if one were needed – on the 777-300ER as the backbone of our long haul fleet. ” But building the fleet around the 777-300ER means there’s currently no room for the Airbus A380. In a blow to Airbus, Tyler indicated his airline will build its long haul fleet around the 777-300ER and, while he said he would “never say never,” he currently has no plans to order the A380. “While I observed the hype surrounding the recent maiden flight of the A380 to Sydney with just a tinge of envy, I can assure you that it has not changed my mind about our decision to go for the product that we think will serve us and our customers best. We think (the 777) is an absolutely terrific aircraft, fuel efficient, more environmentally friendly, and capable of reaching more destinations non-stop in a way that tops all of its competitors. ” Tyler re-stated the airline’s intentions to increase its presence in Australia. “We are enormously pleased with our Australian operations, and with this country’s growing economic, trade and cultural connections with the mainland of China, we can only see it growing further,” he explained. “We operate to more points in Australia – six – than any other foreign carrier doing business here.

This summer alone we will be increasing our capacity by around a quarter from 56 to 71 flights, from eight daily flights to 10.

However, Tyler also cautioned that limitations surrounding Hong Kong’s Chep Lap Kok Airport may restrict the airline’s growth in the short to medium term, “Even our own Hong Kong airport is facing congestion issues less than a decade after it opened,” he said. “As superb as it is, the HKIA does face some restrictions – topography, the close proximity to four other airports and airspace design in the Pearl River Delta. And we do have some peak time capacity issues because of overly-cautious runway capacity constraints and we believe that the aircraft movement rate at our hub could safely rise to 58 an hour by 2009 from the existing 54. ” Tyler also said that, with Cathay’s 2006 acquisition of Dragonair, the airline was now able to open up the Chinese market. “In growing Hong Kong as the region’s premier aviation hub, as Cathay Pacific has aggressively done over the last 10 years, connectivity has been the name of our game,” he explained. “And that’s where our deal last year with Air China which resulted in Dragonair becoming a wholly-owned subsidiary has provided us with our trump card as far as connectivity is concerned.

“To be honest, for many years we had been competing in China with one hand tied behind our backs,” he added.

“We simply couldn’t adequately serve the world’s fastest- growing aviation market situated in our own backyard.

We fixed that in a single stroke by acquiring Dragonair – an airline with which we have had a long association.

This gives us unrivalled blanket coverage of more than 20 points in the mainland, with seriously heavy frequency into the two key cities, Beijing and Shanghai . . . and the synergy that represents for us as a major global network carrier is simply breathtaking. ” Tyler also took the opportunity of his NAPC address to confront some elements of the environmental lobby, particularly in Europe. He warned that the industry was in danger of being “mugged by the green lobby,” some of whom “are sincere, but others don’t seem to be quite on the planet they are trying to save. ” “The fact that aviation contributes something like two per cent to global greenhouse gas emissions, a fraction of that of other forms of transport, has been completely lost in a welter of often bizarre claims about the kind of impact aviation is having on climate change,” he offered. “We can’t let this same kind of nonsense cloud the issue in our part of the world. If we don’t get this right, we’ll find ourselves drowning in green taxes that will go to government funding of everything other than reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. ” On the subject of fuel costs, Tyler pointed out that, while most industries pay close to the current barrel price of oil, airlines pay a premium of around 30 per cent once aviation fuel has been refined to the required standard. “There’s not much I can tell you about the relentless rise in the price of jet fuel except to say that it is a growing nightmare for airlines,” he said. “And with no end in sight to the increase in the cost of oil, it’s a real threat to the global economy. ”