A new bilateral aviation agreement just negotiated by Hong Kong and the United States will remove a major impediment to world economic growth, according to the chairman and CEO of UPS.
The agreement, which will allow U.S. carriers to extend Asian air routes through Hong Kong to the rest of the world, “will accelerate the flow of goods into and out of Asia while providing substantial benefits to American businesses, workers and consumers,” added Mike Eskew, UPS’s top executive.
UPS is one of the U.S. airlines interested in gaining “beyond rights” through Hong Kong. That would allow the company to better utilize its own aircraft to directly connect Hong Kong to international air hubs in the Philippines and Cologne, Germany.
“This new treaty also ensures that Hong Kong will become one of the most important logistics centers in Asia,” the UPS executive said. “The Hong Kong government, under the leadership of Special Administrative Region Chief Executive C.H. Tung, and his negotiating team led by Mary Chow, Deputy Secretary for Economic Services, should be especially commended for its work and success.”
The liberalized aviation agreement was negotiated earlier this week by Tung and an American team formed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta. The U.S. negotiators were led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State John Byerly, Paul Gretch of the Department of Transportation and James Keith, U.S. Counsel General in Hong Kong, “and we commend all the negotiators for their leadership,” Eskew said.
The new agreement is expected to generate US$2.4 billion over the next three years just in additional revenue for U.S. air cargo carriers. But according to Eskew, the pact’s greatest significance lies in the promise to U.S. customers of faster and more efficient movements of goods. Since winning direct air rights to China in 2001, for example, UPS China’s annual revenue more than doubled as customers took advantage of new shipping options.
The new bilateral agreement was negotiated just a month after UPS dedicated a new main air hub, the UPS Worldport, in Louisville, Ky. Within the past year, UPS Airlines also has opened the intra-Asia air hub at Clark in the Philippines; completed its Latin America gateway expansion at Miami International Airport, and announced plans to double the sorting capacity of its Europe air hub in Cologne.
One of the keys to success at UPS is its fleet in the world aircraft that deliver packages around the globe.
