Gathay Pac if ic on the march

Cathay Pacific's affable

CEO Tony Tyler was in

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

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

50

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

only

see

of

China, u/e can

it growing further,"

he explained. "\X/e operate

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

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

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

,;.

-3969*a

(Boeing)

--.tq
--

1ri.

r4F
AUSTRALIAN AVIATION

JANUARY/FEBRUARY

2OO8

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,

fraction of that of othet

forms of transport, has been
a

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