Macau Airline Hires UK Vet
By Tom Mitchell, The Australian | Aug. 29, 2006
Macau Asia Express, a low-cost carrier, has lured a veteran British aviation industry executive out of retirement.
The move reflects the scramble for managerial talent in the former Portuguese enclave where the economy is booming due to gambling.
Ed Winter, who retired last year as EasyJet's chief operating officer after almost 40 years in aviation, is set to become Macau Asia Express's first chief executive from next month, informed sources say.
Formally established in January, Macau Asia Express is a joint venture between Air Macau (the territory's flagship carrier), China National Aviation Company (Air Macau's state parent) and Shun Tak Holdings, the Hong Kong-listed flagship of Stanley Ho, Macau's gambling tycoon.
Macau Asia Express will begin operations early next year, and will be the territory's second budget airline after Viva Macau, the airline managed by former Cathay Pacific executives that expects to launch its maiden flight within months.
Macau's gambling industry, already the world's second largest after the Las Vegas strip, is in the midst of a construction frenzy sparked by its liberalisation in 2002, which ended Stanley Ho's 40-year monopoly over the sector.
Since then, the number of casinos in Macau has doubled to 22 and an additional 11 are planned to open by the end of 2009, according to figures compiled by the territory's industry regulator and brokerage, CLSA. Investors include US gaming magnates Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn, US entertainment group MGM, and James Packer's Publishing and Broadcasting.
More than 90 per cent of the 10.4 million people who visited Macau in the first half of this year either crossed its land border with Zhuhai or travelled by ferry from Hong Kong. Gaming and resort operators are hoping that low-cost carriers such as Macau Asia Express and Viva Macau will extend the territory's regional and international reach.
Mr Winter joined BOAC as a pilot in 1967 and was a founding director and senior executive at Go Fly, British Airway's budget offshoot. He moved over to EasyJet after it acquired Go Fly in 2002. His appointment is the latest example of Macau's corporate hunger for experienced managerial talent.
This year, Mark Brown, the former chief executive of Atlantic City's Trump Entertainment Resorts, moved to Macau to help run Mr Adelson's 740-table Sands Macau casino, the world's largest.