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Is Hong Kong airport facing even stronger headwinds as rivals Shenzhen and Guangzhou eye air supremacy in Greater Bay Area?
- Some experts have warned that Hong Kong could lose out in the battle for business as Shenzhen and Guangzhou airports aggressively eye expansion
- Others are convinced the city will remain the bay area’s international aviation hub because of its superior network
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February 18 marks five years since Beijing unveiled its blueprint to turn the Greater Bay Area into a hi-tech powerhouse by 2035. The region of more than 86 million people covers Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities.
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In the final of a four-part series, Laura Westbrook looks at how different cities are vying to conquer the skies and who’s flying high and who risks being left behind. Here are the links for parts one, two and three.
When CEO Pete Chareonwongsak was deciding how to streamline operations for Malaysia-based cargo carrier Teleport, Guangzhou stood out as the obvious choice for flights from Southeast Asian cities to the Greater Bay Area.
The logistics arm of Capital A, formerly the AirAsia Group, has used Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) – the world’s busiest cargo hub – for five years, operating seven routes. It has five routes to Guangzhou, among its 39 to mainland China.
Among its Hong Kong routes, Teleport flies from Kuala Lumpur as well as from two smaller eastern cities, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching. Chareonwongsak said he wanted to replicate the three routes to Guangzhou.
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The CEO, 36, said that with 50 per cent of e-commerce ending in second- and third-tier cities beyond Southeast Asian capitals, flying directly from where the goods originated in the bay area would be “cheaper, faster and better”.
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