Legislator-cum-lawyer Vong Hin Fai, who chairs the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) 3rd Standing Committee which is reviewing the government-initiated civil aviation bill, said yesterday that the government has submitted a new version of the bill proposing that after the new civil aviation law takes effect, Macau’s current exclusive concessionaire for commercial air transport services, i.e., Air Macau, will be required to apply for a licence if it intends to continue with its commercial air passenger transport service.
According to Vong, the bill’s new version also proposes that the concessionaire will be required to submit a five-year business plan when applying for the licence.
Vong briefed reporters after the committee held a meeting yesterday to review the bill. Officials such as Secretary for Transport and Public Works Raimundo do Rosário and Macau Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) President Pun Wa Kin attended yesterday’s meeting.
The bill’s outline was passed by a plenary session in June last year, after which it was passed to the 3rd Standing Committee for article-by-article review.
The bill proposes to liberalise Macau’s civil aviation sector by licensing the setting-up and operations of more locally headquartered airlines operating passenger transport services through public tender.
In early November last year, the government extended Air Macau’s monopoly concession as a locally headquartered airline for another three years, or until the city’s future new law regulating civil aviation activities, i.e., the civil aviation bill currently being reviewed by the legislature, finally takes effect.
The civil aviation bill’s initial version proposed that after the new law takes effect, Macau’s current concessionaire for commercial air transport services, i.e., Air Macau, would be automatically granted a licence for commercial air passenger transport services without the need to participate in a public tender. Its current concession would remain valid until the respective licence was granted. The government had underlined that the proposed provision aimed to ensure that Air Macau would be one of the future licence holders for commercial air passenger transport services.
According to Vong, his committee was of the view that the initially proposed provision would mean that Air Macau would be legally forced to continue with its air passenger transport services. Vong said that his committee concluded that Air Macau’s right to choose should be respected.
Consequently, Vong said, the bill’s latest version submitted by the government proposes that Macau’s current concessionaire for commercial air transport services “can” choose to apply for a licence for commercial air passenger transport services, within 90 days after the new civil aviation law takes effect.
According to Vong, the latest version also proposes that the concessionaire will be required to submit a five-year business plan when applying for the licence.
Air China is the majority-control shareholder of Air Macau, which started commercial operations on November 9, 1995, when Macau was still under temporary Portuguese administration.
Legislator-cum-lawyer Vong Hin Fai (left), who chairs the legislature’s 3rd Standing Committee, and lawmaker-cum-unionist Leong Sun Iok, the committee’s secretary, look on during yesterday’s media briefing. – Photo courtesy of TDM
