Heli Express, the only company operating scheduled helicopter services from Hong Kong to Macau and Macau to Shenzhen in mainland China, has relaunched with a new name and a new fleet.
The first of six AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters has been delivered to the newly named Sky Shuttle, says the manufacturer.
Operations with the new aircraft are due to begin in 2009 as part of a HKD130 million upgrade and expansion for the carrier.
Macau recorded a 17% year-on-year increase in visitor arrivals via package tours in October, according to the territory’s Statistics and Census Service.
The territory registered 431,880 package tour visitors during the month. Package visitors from Mainland China (293,458) and Taiwan (33,224) increased by 14.8 per cent and 37.8 per cent respectively. Tour visitors from Hong Kong (30,424) recorded a decrease of 4.7 per cent. In the first ten months of 2008, visitor arrivals in package tours rose by 17.5 per cent over the same period of 2007 to 3,928,810.
The reason for the increase in the package holiday trade isn’t clear, though one possible factor is that mainland residents are cutting their travel budgets as the economic downturn takes hold. Another is that it is easier to get a visa to travel to Macau when part of an escorted tour than it is under China’s Individual Visit Scheme (IVS). Under the independent travel system, Chinese tourists are now limited to one trip every three months.
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