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 Metis: the story so farDestination Macau has previously carried reports concerning the planned launch of a new airline in Macau, servicing the Macau-Vancouver route. Before publishing those reports, we should have checked the claims of Christopher Colbourne, the owner of Metis Transpacific Charter Airlines, with the relevant authorities. We did not, and we regret the error of judgment. Here is the story to date, as best we can understand it. Despite its name, Metis does not possess an Air Operator’s Certificate. It is not, therefore, an airline in the strictest sense of the word. However, it does not necessarily need an AOC in order to sell tickets on charter flights. What it does need is an airline, with an AOC, that is prepared to “wet lease” planes to it. Such a lease involves the provision of a fully-staffed plane to the charterer, and allows the charterer to sell tickets for seats on flights operated by the plane’s owners. Metis’s Colbourne then started looking for another AOC owner, and the company announced via its website, www.metismacau.com, that it was aiming to sell tickets for a December 14 “Santa Special” flight, at the price of 1,500 HK$/MOP/RMB return between Macau and Vancouver. It entered into negotiations with Canadian carrier Zoom Airlines on a wet lease agreement, and these negotiations lasted until around November 27. If it had managed to secure the agreement, Metis would have been within its legal right to solicit payment and issue tickets for flights on an aircraft chartered from Zoom. Zoom would have been responsible for securing approval from the Macau aviation authorities to operate the flights between Macau and Vancouver starting on December 14. Zoom has confirmed to Destination Macau that it was indeed in talks with Metis on such an arrangement. However, a company executive, Jonathan Hinckles, said via email that, “… no contract (or any other type of agreement) was ever agreed or signed between us, contrary to the previous news report on your site. We simply had an exchange of e-mails regarding the possibility of us operating the flights, and an outline of the terms on which such flights could potentially take place if both parties decided to go ahead. In the absence of any agreement between us, we will be using the aircraft elsewhere on operations unconnected with Macau or Metis.” AACM has confirmed to Destination Macau that no airline has yet been approved to operate a service between Macau and Vancouver. Colbourne says he has issued tickets, and that “Those pax will not be left stranded, no matter what.” Colbourne says only five days are required prior to launch for the application to be processed by AACM, and that he still has time to secure an agreement with an AOC owner. E-mails submitted to Metis via the booking page of its website had previously elicited requests for payment to be wired to a Hong Kong bank account, which, it turned out, was Colbourne’s personal account at HSBC. When we confronted him on this situation, Colbourne admitted that he was in the process of setting up bank accounts in Macau under his corporate registration. He says that those accounts are now in operation. The details are as follows: Destination Macau will continue to monitor the situation, keeping in touch with the AACM and Metis. Disclaimer: Destination Macau published a full-page advertisement from Metis in our October-November issue. We have not received payment for that advertisement, nor will we accept payment for it unless Metis is able to prove that it does, indeed, have approval to launch the services it advertised.  |
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Destination Macau is published by the Red Ant Media Group, a Hong-Kong based network of media professionals, which also publishes Destination China, a quarterly magazine.
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