FedEx calls for greater flying rights
Express cargo carrier Federal Express has called on the Hong Kong government to provide more fifth-freedom rights to US air cargo operators to run freighter services between Hong Kong and other northeast Asian cities.
“The Hong Kong government has opened up more of the skies in the past few years, but it needs to speed up more bilateral talks with foreign countries in the future,” said Clifton Chua, FedEx Express, managing director for Hong Kong, Macau and Philippines. FedEx Express is a subsidiary of FedEx Corp.
In October 2002, Hong Kong and the United States agreed to expand passenger and air cargo services under a pact which set the stage for a large increase, in three phases, in US airline rights to provide all-cargo services between Hong Kong and third countries, also called fifth-freedom rights. Opportunities have opened up for US carriers under the pact, but some restrictions on frequencies and routes still remain.
Fifth-freedom rights allow airlines to pick up and drop off freight for onward carriage to other destinations. US airlines are eager to gain a greater share of southern China’s air cargo volumes and carry freight to North Asian nations via Hong Kong.
Chua said a huge amount of high technology goods such as computer and electronic components from Shenzhen and Dongguan are consolidated and then airlifted to Japan. “Hong Kong is a bottleneck to transfer cargo from China to the United States,” Chua added. “If the Hong Kong government does not speed up the process of opening up the skies, it will lose its competitive advantage compared with neighboring cities such as Guangzhou since China is liberalizing the skies more than Hong Kong.” Last year, FedEx said it will make the new Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport its Asia-Pacific hub, replacing its existing Philippines hub.
It is also setting up Hong Kong’s largest logistics station, at Yuen Long, for cross-border shipments. The 5,000 square-meter area will be able to handle up to 3,000 packages an hour.
