18 OCT 2002 (FRI) | 19:00-21:00
Urban & Transport Research Laboratory, Rm 211, Hui Oi Chow Science Building, The University of Hong Kong.
Speaker:Prof Christopher Kissling Lincoln University, New Zealand
Professor Kissling currently leads the Transport Studies Programme at Lincoln University,
New Zealand. He joined the university as Reader in Resource Studies in 1990 and was appointed Foundation Professor of Transport Studies in 1994. Since the days of his thesis for his Masters degree in 1962, he has been actively involved in transport research, teaching and consultancy work. Over the past years, he has held visiting positions at various universities, including the London School of Economics (Geography), Northwestern University Illinois (Transportation Centre), and the Universtiy of British Columbia (Geography and Transportation Centre). Most recently, he has been attached to the Transport and Logistics Group at the University of Huddersfield in the UK while on Study Leave.
Besides teaching, Prof Kissling is now on the Editorial Review Board of the Asia Pacific Journal of Transport and the International Editorial Board of the Journal of Air Transport Management, and also is a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Transport and the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is also the past chairman of CITNZ, the New Zealand member of the International Advisory Group for the Pacific Economic Co-operation Council’s Community Building Forum and the Convenor of the New Zealand Pacific Economic Co-operation Council’s Community Building Forum (NZPECC).
Currently, Professor Kissling is undertaking research and supervision in the areas of
gobalisation, transport and communications. Some of the topics include global e-business solutions and their application in international trade & shipping, logistical and legal factors involved in freight supply chains and passenger movements between New Zealand and other countries, refrigeration in maritime transport and air accessibility in the Asia-Pacific region. He has a wealth of research experience in the Asia Pacific, the Americas and Europe.
Abstract:
This presentation will outline the historical background to air accessibility in the South Pacific
Island region and the “progress” that has been made from the mid 1970s through to the present. There have been significant improvements in aviation infrastructure and support services over the years with links between island nations and the Pacific Rim no longer reliant upon external providers. In this modern era of airline alliances, there are relationships between Pacific Island based carriers and larger metropolitan carriers through code-share arrangements. They are still quite restrictive in application and present a challenge to travellers wishing to package several island destinations into one major excursion. Island tourism needs the links to source countries around the Pacific Rim and beyond, but they are in competition with each other to snare those tourists. National self-interest prevails over regional cooperation unless regional cooperation can bring about mutual advantages on
a bilateral or multilateral basis.
It remains true as much today as some 10 to 15 and 20 years ago, that travel on what are seen
as “thin routes” between neighbouring island nations often necessitates a wait for several days to get a reasonably direct flight. The alternative is to take the quicker, but much longer, and more expensive option of flying from an island origin to the Pacific Rim, and back again to the desired destination. For island delegates to regional meetings, it adds to the per diems they receive for the extra days away from home and they may not complain. For organisers of meetings and conferences, finding a place and dates for those meetings, whereby delegates can arrive and depart together, is difficult as the South Pacific Forum Secretariat will attest. Some places are well integrated into international air services. Others remain marginalised.
This talk will explore the pros and cons of implementing an intra-island air shuttle service.
The aim of such a service would be to provide coordinated links between island destinations at a frequency that will provide quality air accessibility and useful feed traffic to the trans-Pacific routes.
Organizers:Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning, HKU (MATPP)
All are Welcome!!
