All-cargo services between mainland China and Hong Kong will be fully liberalised by the end of this year which will eliminate capacity restrictions currently in place, following consultations between the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China and the Transport and Housing Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
"The new memorandum of understanding will further strengthen the aviation link between the mainland and Hong Kong as more airlines can be designated to operate services," said Hong Kong SAR Secretary for Transport and Housing, Eva Cheng.
The Hong Kong SAR Transport and Housing Bureau explained that as far as operating rights on individual routes were concerned, starting from end-March 2008, restrictions on the number of designated airlines on most routes would be removed.
As for the Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Kunming, Dalian and Chengdu routes, each side could designate three airlines to operate passenger/all-cargo services and two other airlines for all-cargo services from end-March.
By end-2008 the designations would increase to four airlines to operate passenger/all-cargo services and three other airlines for all-cargo services.
For all-cargo services, the present capacity limit, which only applied to the Beijing and Shanghai routes, would be completely lifted starting from winter/ spring 2008/09, "achieving full liberalisation for all-cargo services".