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2005 Press Releases
HONG KONG, April 19, 2005 ¡V Today, FedEx Express (FedEx), the world's largest express transportation company, urged Hong Kong to adopt a completely open aviation regime, rather than granting incremental rights over time. This would ensure that air transportation services help to facilitate, rather than bottleneck, continued bilateral economic growth.
David L. Cunningham Jr., FedEx Asia Pacific President, commented on the upcoming Hong Kong-U.S. air services talks in Washington D.C., saying that an all-cargo "Open Skies" agreement will benefit not only the air express industry, but also contribute to Hong Kong's free economy, allowing market forces to thrive.
"It is strange that while manufacturers are free to set up operations in Hong Kong, airlines are restricted as to where they can fly," said Mr. Cunningham. "Restrictive air regimes prevent carriers from operating as freely and efficiently as the 'just in time' global economy demands. From the perspective of the air express industry, the operating environment is still far from ideal."
He continued,"By unnecessarily limiting where and when we can fly, the express industry is forced to make business decisions for non-business reasons. Complying with a restrictive air regime costs money, which will ultimately be passed on to customers."
"It is unrealistic for governments to regulate routes and frequencies under an outmoded system created to serve wartime protectionism. We cannot identify today exactly where demand is going to come from tomorrow. However, we do know that economic activity is going to increase over the next several decades: globalization will continue to create a need for these kinds of services," Mr. Cunningham explained.
"In addition, with the increasingly liberal air services deals sealed across the region, and especially in China, the key to Hong Kong's continued success in competing as a regional aviation hub and logistics center lies in liberalizing its aviation regime," he added.
Today, 67 countries have Open Skies agreements with the U.S. These include major European countries such as Germany and France. In Asia, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and New Zealand have all-cargo seventh freedom treaties while the Open Skies pacts with Taiwan and South Korea do not include all-cargo sevenths. Most recently, the U.S. government reached Open Skies agreements with Indonesia and India, and all-cargo Open Skies with Thailand.
About FedEx Express
FedEx Express, a subsidiary of FedEx Corp., connects areas that generate 90% of the world's gross domestic product in one to three business days with door-to-door, customs-cleared service and a money-back guarantee. The company's unmatched air route authorities and infrastructure make it the world's largest express transportation company, providing fast, reliable and time-definite transportation of approximately 3.2 million packages to more than 220 countries and territories each working day. FedEx Express employs more than 138,000 employees and has over 50,000 drop-off locations, 671 aircraft and more than 41,000 motorized vehicles in its integrated global network.
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