Hong Kong airport extends fee discounts

Hong Kong airport extends fee discounts    The Hong Kong Airport Authority said this week it will extend the 10 percent discount on landing and parking charges at Hong Kong International Airport for another three months, beginning Jan. 1.
   The airport authority provided the airport fee discounts as a way to alleviate cash flow constraints on airlines who saw volume and yield plummet in the first half of 2009.
   The extension will encourage airlines using Hong Kong International Airport 'to maintain or even increase frequencies at a time when sustainable recovery in aviation still looks far from certain,' Cathay Pacific Chief Executive Tony Tyler said in a statement. “It also helps maintain the competitiveness of the Hong Kong hub in the face of the discounts being offered to airline by many other airports in the region.
   'From a Cathay Pacific perspective, the news is a boost to our plans to restore some services we had to suspend earlier this year, and to the prospects of adding new destinations. However, notwithstanding recent seasonal pick up in our passenger and freight business, yields remain under pressure. And with rising fuel prices in uncertain market conditions, we remain cautious about the prospects of global recovery for the aviation industry.”