DHL to acquire stake in Air Hong Kong under new deal
DHL Worldwide Express yesterday inked a deal to buy a 30% stake in Cathay Pacific’s formerly wholly owned subsidiary, Air Hong Kong.
Under the joint venture agreement, Air Hong Kong will purchase a fleet of mid-range, wide-body aircraft to “operate and enhance” DHL’s network to the major cities in the Asia Pacific region.
Air Hong Kong plans to buy five all-freighter aircraft by 2004, and to reach a fleet of at least eight planes by 2010. The company committed an initial investment of about US$300 million before 2004 and an additional US$100 million by 2010. The new deal follows an announcement last week that DHL will develop and operate the new Express Cargo Terminal at Hong Kong International Airport, which will serve as DHL’s Central Asian hub.
Annual “throughput” for the new joint venture will be about 160,000 tons, equal to about one-sixth of all intra-Asian cargo that currently passes through Hong Kong’s airport. The new cargo terminal, once completed in 2004, will replace DHL’s Central Asia Hub at the HACTL Express Center at the airport. Since March 2000, Cathay Pacific and DHL have collaborated on overnight cargo /passenger flights from Hong Kong to Osaka, Seoul, Taipei and Singapore.
