Sydney blames Macau for grounding Viva

Viva Macau was not able to get what could be its most popular and most lucrative route to and from Sydney off the ground yesterday due to a communication lapse over technical issues between Australian and Macau airport authorities, according to a source from Macau's aviation sector.

"This is actually not the fault of Viva," a source who has asked to remain anonymous told Destination Macau. "The two regulators [Australia and Macau] need to coordinate in terms of technical issues. They need to have a partnership in place. Australia was asking technical questions of the AACM [Civil Aviation Authority of Macau] and not getting answers from Macau so they said they would not approve a start date until they got the answers they needed."

Destination Macau contacted Viva Macau's new CEO, Con Korfiatis last night to find out what went wrong.

"I wish this were an April Fool's joke in August, but it's not. I'm actually in Sydney right now trying to work this out. There were delays in getting information out of Macau, which has resulted in delays here," Korfiatis said.

"If we had known sooner that this was not going to work out, we would have made an announcement earlier, but now that we know we are doing everything we can to accommodate those affected by re-scheduling people on other flights out of Sydney and Hong Kong. We are also offering free roundtrip tickets in future to those who booked with us and now cannot fly."

The flight from Sydney to Macau was fully booked, Korfiatis said and the flight to Sydney was also heavily booked.

A new launch date for the thrice-weekly service, which is a 9-hour, direct flight will be announced within days and the airline still expects to start flying this month.

The first of the affected flights are:
MFM-SYD ZG9501 15-AUG-07 22:35 10:00+1
SYD-MFM ZG9500 16-AUG-07 11:25 18:55

Affected passengers will be offered:

1) A full refund on the total amount of air ticket(s) purchased, or
2) Viva Macau will arrange another flight with another airline via Hong Kong or on a replacement aircraft on a similar schedule, or
3) Re-book on a future Viva Macau flight.
4) Passengers are entitled to recieve one roundtrip ticket to and from any of Viva Macau's scheduled destinations, redeemable within 12 months.

Affected customers in Macau can contact Viva Macau at (853) 8010-190 or (853) 8010-195 or (853) 8010-197. Sydney passengers can contact the International Charter Group at toll free: 1300-848-262 or (612) 9762-1020.