Gathay Pac if ic on the march

Cathay Pacific's affable CEO Tony Tyler was in

of its competitors."
Tyler re-stated the aidine's intentions to increase its presence in AustraLia. "We are enormously pleased with out Australian operations, and with this country's growing economic, trade and cultural connections with the
main-land

Australia recently and

addressed the National Aviation Press Club (NAPC) in Sydney on November 13 on issues such as fleet renewal, the Australian market, the environment, and fuel

of

China, u/e can

only

see

it growing further,"

he explained. "\X/e operate

prices.
In Nor,-ember Cathay
ordered seven Boeing 777-300ERs and 10 747-8F freighters, the airline's largest single order in hisrory. "lt was a blockbuster of an order that made two major statements from us," Tyler explained. "First, it undedines our faith in and commitment to Hong I(ong as an aviation hub. !7e think it has a fantastic future. Second, it was our seal of approval - if one were needed - on the 777-300FR as the backbone of our long haul fleet." But building the fleet around the 777-3008R means there's currendy no room for the Airbus A380. In a blow to Airbus, Tyler indicated his airline will build its long haul fleet around the 777-3008R and, while he said he would "never say nevefr" he currently has no plans to order the A380. "!7hile I observed the hype surrounding the recent maiden flight of the A380 to Sydney with just a tinge of envy, I can assure vou that it has not changed my mind about our decision to go ior the product that we think s'ill serve us and our customers best. We think (the 777) is ;rn absolutelv teritfrc urcnft, :':el etlicient, more environ::r;:::-.11'.' tiiendlr', and capable :nore destinations nO1-:: - : -a ,. ':,r,. that tops all

to more points in Australia - six - than anv 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 I{ong's Chep Lap I(ok Airport may restrict the airfine's growth in the short to medium term, "Even our own Hong I(ong airport is facing congestion issues less than a decade after it opened," he said. "As superb as it is, the HI(IA does face some restrictions - topography, the close proximiq' to four other airports and
airspace desrgn in the Pearl River Delta. And we do have some peak time capacity issues because of overly-cau-

flous funway caPaclly 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 rr/as now able to open up the Chinese market. "In growing Hong I(ong as the region's premier aviation hub, as Cathal' Pacific has aggressively done over the Iast 10 years, connectivity has been the name of our game," he explained. '.And that's where our deal last )ts21 with Air China which resulted in Dtagonair becoming a

ket coverage of more than 20 points in the mainland, with seriously healr' frequency into the two key cities, Beijing and Shanghai ... and the synergy that represents for us as a major global nerwork carrier is simply breathtaking." Tyler also took the oppor-

tuniry of his NAPC address to confront some elements

of the environmental lobby,

particulatly in Europe. He warned that the industry was in danger of being "mugged by the green lobbl'," 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,

wholly-owned subsidiary has ptovided us with our trump

card as far as connectivitv is concerned. "To be honest, for many years we had been compedng

fraction of that of othet forms of transport, has been

a

in China with one hand tied

behind our backs," he added. "\7e 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 aidine with which rr-e have had a long associadon. This gives us unrir-alled blan-

Cathay recently ordered Ihe 747-B Fre gl-:e. z'a. =/'.'a

(Boeing)

,;.

-3969*a

1ri.

r4F
AUSTRALIAN AVIATION

--.tq -2OO8

completely lost in a welter of often brzarce claims about the kind of impact aviation is having on climate change," he offered. "We can't let tlis same kind of nonsense cloud the issue in our part of the world. lf ue don't get this right, u-e'11 find ourselves dros-ning in green taxes that rr'ill go to government funding of evervthing other than reducing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere." On the subject of tuel costs, Tr'ler pointed out that, whi-le most industries pay close to the current barrel price of oil. airlines pay a premium of around 30 per cent once rrr-iation fuel has been retined to the required standard. "There's not much I c:rn tell r-ou about the relentless rise in the price of jet fuel e\cept to say that it is a growing nightmare for aidines," he said. 'And with no end in sight to the increase in the cost of oil, it's a real threat to the globai econom1,." D

50

JANUARY/FEBRUARY