Macau’s CotaiJet ferry operation has been issued a 10-year license to operate its ferries between Macau and Hong Kong and has won permission to run new routes, Sands China Ltd, the ferries’ owner, announced on Thursday.
The company, which has run ferries between the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal in Hong Kong and the Taipa Ferry Terminal in Macau since late 2007, can now also run ferries between Hong Kong International Airport and the Taipa Ferry Terminal, meaning that shoppers can be deposited directly at the city’s main hotel-casino-retail zone, the Cotai Strip.
"Opening new routes and increasing capacity from Hong Kong to Macau will facilitate the growth of the meetings, incentive, convention, and exhibition business by seamlessly linking the Hong Kong airport and other points of arrival and departure to the Cotai Strip," said company CEO Steve Jacobs.
Under the new license, CotaiJet can operate up to 35 daily roundtrip sailings between the Hong Kong-Macau and Taipa Ferry Terminals; six roundtrip sailings between Hong Kong International Airport and the Taipa Ferry Terminal; six roundtrip sailings between Hong Kong International Airport and the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal on the Macau peninsula; three roundtrip sailings each between the Hong Kong China Ferry Terminal (on Hong Kong’s Kowloon peninsula) and the Taipa and Outer Harbour Ferry Terminals; and two daily roundtrip sailings between the Hong Kong-Macau and Outer Harbour Ferry Terminals.
Jacobs said the company would work as quickly as possible to have the new routes up and running and he thanked the Macau Port Authority and the Macau SAR Government for their hard work and dedication throughout the process.