Gimpo to Macau on budget airlines

Jin Air, Korean Air’s budget airlines, has submitted an application to operate passenger flights from Seoul to Macau as early as next month, the Civil Aviation Authority of Macau (AACM) has told Macau Daily Times.
“Jin Air has submitted their application to us to fly five weekly passenger flights from Seoul starting the end of November 2010,” the AACM spokesperson said. However, the precise date cannot yet be confirmed because local authorities are still waiting for some documents. “We are pending for their submission of some missing technical documents,” she added.
Earlier this year, Jin Air’s CEO, Kim Jae-kun, said the company had plans to fly to Macau. The route, he added, would link the MSAR to Gimpo, the second airport of the Korean capital.
Currently, Air Macau flies seven times a week to the main Incheon airport, also in Seoul.
Since 2008, Jin Air has been in contact with the AACM seeking information about operations of charter flights to the SAR. The company even sent their application in June this year for charter services between Seoul and Macau for a total of eight flights from July 30 to August 23.


According to AACM’s spokesperson, Air Macau has also submitted an application to fly three weekly passenger flights to Hefei, in Anhui province, and four weekly passenger flights to Ningbo, in Zhejiang province. The flag carrier of Macau plans to fly in December, but the Civil Aviation Authority “is also pending for their submission of some missing technical documents” to allow the new routes.
Yesterday, local media quoted businessman Ngan In Leng, the president of the bankrupt airline Viva Macau, saying he had plans to start a new airline, despite his disappointment at the Civil Aviation Authority. Ngan even said he was currently waiting for the arrival of new planes, The Macau Post Daily reported.
However, AACM knows nothing about a new carrier. “Up till the present moment, we have not received any application or been contacted by any investors who are interested in setting up an airline in Macau,” the spokesperson told MDT.
This year, only one new company began flying to Macau, according to the data provided by AACM. In July, Mandala Airlines started operating three weekly passenger flights from Jakarta.
Aside from Mandala, in September, Air Macau started operating two weekly all-cargo flights respectively to Shanghai, Singapore and Bangkok.