TAP Air Portugal is having a tough time on its newly launched route from Lisbon to Macau. Its difficulties range from inability to make the best use of its alliance partners to scheduling inefficiency.
Launched in April, the twice-weekly flight operates via Brussels, with a block-space agreement with Sabena on the Brussels-Macau sector. Sabena uses the route as an indirect link with Hong Kong, but completion of the key airside jetfoil terminal at Macau has been delayed until mid-1997, so Hong Kong-bound passengers face an inconvenient transit.
TAP has been frustrated in its efforts to cooperate with Air Macau, in which it owns a 25 per cent stake. The two carriers have failed to coordinate their schedules to enable Air Macau's regional flights to feed TAP, largely because Air Macau's schedule is driven by local markets. Furthermore, the airport authority does not allow TAP and Air Macau to share airport lounges; Air Macau has its own but TAP has to use the airport authority's own lounge.
TAP is also finding its own schedule inefficient. The aircraft spends over 12 hours on the ground in Macau, and only two weekly flights mean lengthy crew layovers. Yet a frequency increase is unlikely until traffic picks up.
One way to make the route more efficient would be to extend it to Tokyo or Osaka, but Japan has refused to discuss beyond rights from the Portuguese colony until the question of its sovereignty is settled.
Meanwhile, Thai Airways and Air Pacific of Vietnam have begun flying to the US$1.1 billion Macau airport, raising the number of airlines operating there to 16.
Richard Whitaker
Source: Airline Business
