Asia should further liberalize its airline industry to unleash the region's full growth prospects or risk losing billions in unrealized potential, industry experts said yesterday.
"We need one more revolution and that's from the government ... liberalization," said Peter Harbison, executive chairman of the Sydney-based Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA).
The airline industry has enjoyed unprecedented growth in recent years, weathering the shocks from skyrocketing oil prices and avian flu outbreaks in parts of Asia, thanks largely to booming econ-omies in India and China, industry players said at the regional Aviation Outlook Summit.
But they said Asia must now face the reality that further opening up - -- for example by reducing restrictions on which carriers can fly certain routes -- is needed for continued growth.
"I think the greatest challenge that we face is to make enough money," said Brian Pearce, chief economist at the International Air Transport Association, which groups 260 airline companies.
"Asia has been the most consistently profitable part of the world but even in Asia, the returns on capital are less than five percent," Pearce said, adding that that is only half what it should be for long-term financial viability in a liberalized, commercial industry.
He said the region still lagged behind the EU and the US in loosening restrictions on its aviation sector and is losing "billions" of dollars as a result.
"We have seen progress, we have seen good progress in a number of areas but in many ways, Asia is playing catch-up to what we have already seen in Europe and the US," he told reporters on the sidelines of the conference.
Harbison, of the Sydney CAPA aviation consultancy which organized the conference, also pressed the need for more deregulation.
"In this environment, the whole basis for tight regulation of international markets, or protectionism, just does not really exist," Harbison said.
He cited the case of Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia whose phenomenal success in opening up the domestic market has shown authorities that the industry does not need subsidies or protection to be commercially viable.
Harbison said that when AirAsia entered the market, it expanded "quite dramatically in ways which didn't require subsidy and in ways which stimulate traffic."
"The outcome, well just about everybody wins," he said, adding that the emergence of AirAsia has forced flag carrier Malaysia Airlines to try to improve its performance, which is ultimately good for the industry.
AirAsia was launched as a budget carrier in December 2001 with just two aircraft but now offers more than 100 domestic and international flights around the region.
Andrew Herdman, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said liberalization would benefit all carriers, not just low-cost entrants.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique