ENG-1996 — Page 331

TRANSPORT

An up-graded information display system was installed in August to provide. general airport information as well as flight information. The VIP Suite is being expanded to meet increasing demand and work should be completed in May 1997.

Air Services

Hong Kong is home to three international airlines. Cathay Pacific Airways (CPA), the largest of the three, commenced scheduled passenger services to New York in July. To cope with the increasing scale of its operations, CPA has acquired three A330-300s, five A340-300s and four B777-200s, while all of its L1011s were phased out during the year. At the end of 1996, its fleet comprised seven B747-200s, six B747- 300s, 19 B747-400s, five A340-300s, 10 A330-300s, two A340-200s, four B777-200s, four B747-200Fs and two B747-400Fs a total of 59 aircraft.

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Hong Kong Dragon Airlines (Dragonair) began scheduled passenger services to Kaohsiung and Qingdao in July and August, respectively, and converted its regular passenger charter services to Xian and Chengdu into scheduled services in August. With these additions, the airline now operates scheduled services to 10 cities in China and eight other destinations in Asia, together with non-scheduled passenger services. to other cities in the region, mostly in China and Japan.

Dragonair continued to participate in the joint services between Bandar Seri Begawan and Hong Kong operated by Royal Brunei Airlines. With the introduction of an additional A330-300 aircraft, the airline now operates seven A320-200 and four A330-300 aircraft.

AHK Air Hong Kong (AHK) continued to operate scheduled all-cargo services to Manchester, Brussels and Dubai, and non-scheduled cargo services to various destinations in Asia. The airline commenced scheduled all-cargo service to Osaka in March, replacing its Nagoya service, and to Chicago in August. To cope with the increasing scale of its operations, AHK has acquired three B747-200 freighters to replace its original B747-100 and B747-200 freighters.

Seven foreign carriers introduced new scheduled services to Hong Kong during the year Cargolux in January (by converting its cargo charters into scheduled services), Grand International Airways in April, EL AL Israel Airlines (by converting its passenger charters into scheduled services) and Eva Airways in August, China Northwest Airlines in September, and China Northern Airlines and China Southwest Airlines in October. These additions boosted the number of scheduled airlines serving Hong Kong to 66. At the end of the year, these airlines together operated about 1 500 direct round trip services weekly between Hong Kong and over 100 other cities. Besides the scheduled services, an average of 210 non-scheduled flights were operated each week.

Under specific authorisation from the British Government, the Hong Kong Government continues to negotiate air services agreements (ASAs) and hold regular air services consultations with foreign aviation partners, to review and update current bilateral arrangements to cope with changing market circumstances. In 1996, 33 rounds of air services consultations were held with 21 countries. Four more ASAS were signed with the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Italy and India - bringing the total of such agreements to 15.

In 1996, the Air Transport Licensing Authority granted three licences to Hong Kong airlines: one each to CPA, Dragonair and AHK. At the end of the year, CPA

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