39
2006, in a move sponsored by the gov- ernment to allow Macau to have more airlines. Eventually only Viva Macau began operating. It was obliged to get authorisation from Air Macau before opening a new route.
Revocation On the evening of March 28, Mr Zhao wrote to Viva Macau chairman Ngan In Leng saying that following “offi cial correspondence received from the Civil Aviation Authority, with deepest regret, (he) was instructed to terminate with immediate effect, the sub-concession contract”. The same day, the Civil Aviation Au-
thority’s Mr Chan wrote to Viva Macau chief executive Reg Macdonald saying he had been informed by Air Macau that Viva’s sub-concession had been terminated. Mr Chan’s letter said the au- thority had to revoke Viva Macau’s air operator certifi cate because the contract with Air Macau had been cancelled. The letter ordered Viva Macau to stop fl ying and stop selling tickets. Two days later Viva Macau wrote to
Air Macau. The letter said: “Third-party instructions, even if issued by the regu- lator, do not constitute legal grounds of termination” of the sub-concession con- tract. Mr Ngan said he therefore did not consider Air Macau’s letter to be a valid notice of termination. In a letter dated March 31, Air
Macau’s chairman, Mr Zhao, replied that it was not possible to recall the prior letter that terminated the sub-concession contract. He insisted that the contract had ended. Viva Macau’s breach of its public service obligations, its repeated cancellation of fl ights, its refusal to pro- vide the operational and fi nancial data stipulated in the sub-concession con- tract and its refusal to pay its outstand- ing royalties, were cited as grounds for termination. On the same day Viva Macau law-
yers wrote to the secretary for transport and public works, asking for a “certifi - cate” of the secretary’s administrative decision. On April 16 the president of the Civil Aviation Authority replied. “There was no he wrote.
administrative act,” Who is ultimately responsible for
Viva Macau’s grounding? In response to a written enquiry
from Macau Business, a spokeswoman for the Civil Aviation Authority, speak- ing also on behalf of the secretary for transport and public works, said the gov- ernment “acting within the supervision powers to monitor the activity of Viva Macau, gave the non-enforceable opin- ion that legal conditions were gathered” for Air Macau to terminate the sub-con- cession contract. This was not only because Viva
Macau “had lost the capacity to provide normal air transport services” but also because of “the need to protect [the] public interest and Macau’s image as a tourism city”. The spokeswoman added: “Follow-
ing the termination of the sub-conces- sion contract of Viva Macau, their air operator certifi cate was revoked.” She said the government had tried to
help Viva Macau get through its opera- tional diffi culties. “We regret to see that the company was not able to overcome them,” the spokeswoman said.
OCTOBER 2010
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