On Monday, The TurboJet company announced a reduction in the number of daily sailings between Macau and Hong Kong.
Contrary to what usually happens at this time of the year, the change in schedule represents a further reduction from the previous number of daily sailings that in April reached its peak of 58 sailings per day (in both directions) between Sheung Wan and the Outer Harbor Ferry Terminal.
According to the new schedules, this figure has dropped to 40 (20 in each direction).
Changes also extend to the route between Kowloon and Taipa, which is now reduced to just one sailing per day (in each direction).
When compared to April 2024, the new schedule represents a reduction of about one-third.
This change makes it so that, at some times of the day, the gap between sailings has grown to up to 90 minutes.
According to sources close to the company, the changes are unlikely to be related to a reduction in the number of passengers but, rather, to an ongoing company restructuring of TurboJet’s staffing and vessels, which makes it impossible for the company to cope with the previous schedules.
The topic was also addressed by the Jetfoil Conservation Concern Group, which noted that, with the current changes in schedule, TurboJet is not only lagging behind the Cotai Water Jet in terms of the number of passengers transported per day but, for the first time, also in the number of services per day. Cotai Water Jet operates only to Taipa Ferry Terminal and currently has 46 daily services (in both directions).
The Jetfoil Conservation Concern Group, which follows up constantly on matters related to ferries between Macau and Hong Kong, also noted that “summertime used to be a high-season for the HK-Macau ferry business,” but that seems to no longer be the case for TurboJet.
The group also added that “apart from [peak] hours, [TurboJet] struggles to maintain a 30-minute [frequency] between sailings”. The new schedule involves more than 60 and even 90-minute wait periods between services.
Earlier this month, and as the Times reported, the same group announced, that for the first time in 60 years, no hydrofoil ferries are operating between Macau and Hong Kong. The Foilcats “Penha” and “Barca,” the last of the hydrofoil ferries to operate in the wake of the pandemic, have both ceased their services and been returned to their shipyard.
The group said there was no information on whether the vessels were retired completely or if they would resume operations in the future.
There had been several indications, apparently coming from within TurboJet itself, that there was an intention of “uniformizing the fleet” of TurboJet to better manage the company’s resources.
According to an official statistics release from the Statistics and Census Service, a total of 730,619 people of all nationalities entered Macau using the Outer Harbour Ferry Terminal in the first semester of this year. In the same period, the Taipa Ferry Terminal was responsible for the entry of 1,233,696 passengers into Macau.
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