ENG-2005 — Page 332

286 Transport

the year, the Government concluded a new air services agreement with Saudi Arabia bringing the total to 55 agreements.

The Government also actively reviews the traffic rights arrangements with our bilateral partners to expand Hong Kong's aviation network and introduce more competition into the market. In 2005, the Government expanded traffic arrangements with 10 aviation partners, including fully liberalising bilateral air services between Hong Kong and Luxembourg, Bahrain, Mexico, and Ethiopia.

During the year, the Air Transport Licensing Authority granted 18 licences: four to Cathay Pacific Airways (CPA), two to Hong Kong Dragon Airlines (HDA), one to AHK Air Hong Kong (AHK), four to CR Airways (CRA), four to Hong Kong Express Airways (HKE) and three to Oasis Hong Kong Airlines (Oasis). To enhance transparency, the authority also made public its procedures for processing licence applications. The Procedural Guide is available on: www.edib.gov.hk/edb/eng/related/Guide-eng-final.pdf.

CPA started passenger air services to Xiamen in February. During the year, the airline took delivery of a new B777-300 and three new A330-300 aircraft and increased the frequency of its scheduled passenger air services to Amsterdam, Bali, Beijing, Frankfurt, Ho Chi Minh City, Jakarta, Johannesburg, London, Nagoya, Perth, Rome and Seoul. As for freighter services, CPA launched new services to Shanghai in January and started services to Atlanta and Dallas in November. In December, the airline's first Boeing B747-400 special freighter converted from a passenger aircraft received its Certificate of Airworthiness. As the traffic soared at the airport, yearly record highs in passenger and air cargo shipment by CPA were recorded. By the end of the year, CPA was operating scheduled services to 53 destinations worldwide.

HDA launched scheduled passenger air services to Urumqi in July for the summer season. It also extended its codeshare services with Air China to cover Beijing, Hangzhou and Wuhan. During the year, one new A320-200 and three new A330-300 aircraft were delivered to the airline. In April, the airline started its trans-Pacific scheduled all-cargo air services to New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. By the end of the year, HDA had recorded a record number of passenger and air cargo shipments and was operating scheduled services to 33 destinations, including 19 cities in the Mainland.

CRA took delivery of a CRJ-700 aircraft during the year and launched scheduled passenger air services to Nanning, Jinan, Sanya/Haikou, Guilin and Kunming in January, April, July, August and October respectively. The charter services to Laoag were also converted to scheduled services in July.

HKE had its Air Operator's Certificate varied in July for the operation of Embraer ERJ-170 fixed-wing aircraft. Before the issue of the varied certificate, the company provided helicopters services only. The airline took delivery of three new Embraer 170 aircraft in 2005 and launched scheduled passenger air services to Guangzhou, Hangzhou and Ningbo in September, October and December respectively.