Gaming sector asks for ‘open sky’ policy

Kevin Clayton, executive vice president at Sands China, said the solution is ‘to open up the international airport to more airlines’

The Macau International Airport (MIA) should open its flight rights to other airlines besides flag carrier Air Macau, said two gaming operator executives yesterday. According to them, the passenger traffic at MIA will continue to drop in favour of neighbouring airports until the monopoly is overturned.
“Things will not change until flight rights at the Macau airport are open,” said Peter Caveny, principal investor relations at Galaxy Entertainment.
“The bus trip from Guangzhou to Macau takes one and a half hours and yet they are always full,” he said, during the 2010 Global Gaming Expo Asia (G2E Asia).
“Domestic flights in mainland China are quite inexpensive.
But flights to Hong Kong and Macau are already international so they have to pay a lot more tax,” Caveny added.
Furthermore, underscored the Galaxy executive, the expansion of Guangzhou airport will make it the third biggest in the world by 2015, with direct connections to around 103 airports in mainland China.
By then, Caveny said, the Chinese visitors will be able to reach Macau in 47 minutes using the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Intercity Mass Rapid Transit.
According to the latest available data, in April there was a 5 percent increase on the number of visitors, compared to same period last year. In April, 2.1 million visitors crossed the Macau borders, the highest since March 2008.
However the passenger traffic at MIA is on a two-month downward trend.

Viva Macau was ‘an opportunity’

The MIA figures have been quick to reflect the impact of Viva Macau’s air operator certificate revocation, which only took place on March 28.
“We have just lost an airline,” recalled Kevin Clayton, executive vice president for marketing operations at Sands China. Viva Macau was “an advantage, an opportunity to markets like Japan, Indonesia or Australia,” he said.
For Clayton, the solution has to be “to open up the international airport to more airlines and more air routes.” Caveny stated a similar view: “We have to open the Macau skies.” Currently, Air Macau, the flag carrier of Macau, has a nominal monopoly on commercial flights to and from the MIA until 2015. Viva Macau was operating under a sub-concession, in which Air Macau had first-refusal right on all routes.
The Galaxy executive believes the gaming market is fulfilling “less than 20 percent of its potential.” “I see no barriers but we just have to get the infrastructure right,” Caveny warned.
“Macau has the convention space, the hotel rooms, but not the infrastructures to become a MICE [Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions] industry centre,” said Andy Nazarechuk, dean of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) Singapore Campus.
In a recent interview with local Portuguese-language radio station, the director of Marketing Department at CAM-Macau International Airport Company, António Rato, said that the aviation regulator should issue more licenses, making way for more companies to enter the Macau market. For Rato, it is not possible to take advantage of all the potential with only Air Macau, especially following the revocation of Viva Macau’s license.
According to Rato, Air Macau shouldn’t have the exclusive air service rights. On the other hand, he said that the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau should be in charge of managing the aviation licenses concession.

VQ