XN000022-1997-04-04 — Page 3

Hong Kong - New Zealand air talks concluded

The Hong Kong and New Zealand Governments have recently concluded new air traffic arrangements that provide for a balanced exchange of traffic rights for the airlines of both places.

Flexible and expansionary, the new arrangements reflect the needs of the market and open up opportunities for growth in tourism, a spokesman for the Economic Services Branch said, adding in particular that the arrangements provide the airlines in HK and New Zealand with new fifth freedom points in Australia, offering travellers the ability to stop over there on their trips from Hong Kong to New Zealand, and vice versa.

The business traveller will also stand to benefit. Cathay Pacific, for instance, currently operates only five non-stop services per week between Hong Kong and Auckland. Under the new arrangements, however, the company could plan to gradually increase this to a daily flight by early 1998.

Together with Air New Zealand. Cathay Pacific carried a total of 200,000 passengers in 1996, an increase of 23 per cent over 1995.

According to the Hong Kong Tourists Association, 32,900 Hong Kong residents visited New Zealand in 1996, an increase of about 12 per cent over 1995. On the other hand, 58,000 New Zealand residents visited the territory in 1996, an increase of about 16 per cent over 1995.

The Hong Kong - New Zealand air traffic arrangements were concluded in talks between the two sides in Wellington, New Zealand, on February 20 - 21 this year but have only just been brought into effect because of the New Zealand Government's requirement to first complete its necessary procedures.

This round of meeting followed several others stretching over four years. The new air traffic arrangements were negotiated under the umbrella of the Hong Kong/New Zealand Air Services Agreement signed in February 1991.

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