Mabel Chan: Rising oil prices put ferry operators under financial pressure; authorities closely monitoring their financial soundness.

Hong Kong's Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Mabel Chan, said that international crude oil prices have continued to fluctuate, and the price of commercial diesel used by ferries has risen sharply since March this year. Although it fell back slightly in the middle of the year, it has risen again to a high level in recent months. The sharp rise in fuel prices has increased the overall cost of ferry services, putting operators under operating pressure. The Transport Department will continue to maintain close contact with all operators and monitor their operating and financial conditions, paying particular attention to the pressure that oil prices may place on operators' financial positions. In a written reply to a Legislative Council member's question, Mabel Chan said that when considering operators' fare adjustment applications, the Transport Department will prudently consider various factors under the established mechanism, including public acceptability as well as operators' financial conditions, service performance, operating data and long-term financial sustainability. Taking the fare adjustment implemented in April this year for six major outlying island ferry routes as an example, after assessing the applications, the Transport Department substantially reduced the fare increase from the 15 to 30 percent sought by ferry operators to 8 percent for multi-ride tickets and 12.5 percent for single-journey tickets, and required operators to introduce more diversified multi-ride ticket arrangements. Based on the department's observations, the relevant fare adjustments and service adjustments can broadly cater to residents' travel needs. She mentioned that the Hong Kong government has always encouraged ferry operators to adopt a multi-pronged approach to simultaneously increase ticket revenue and non-ticket revenue so as to maintain long-term financial soundness. The Transport Department established an interdepartmental task force in June this year to speed up the approval of ferry operators' applications for commercial activities and proposals to improve pier facilities, helping to increase non-ticket revenue.