The failure to find empirical evidence of the miracle water didn't stop some of the more fresh-faced executives at Cathay Pacific Airways from searching for an antithesis to the phantom elixir.

For them, the search was driven by an entirely different type of golden liquid, one found in the south of France.

Apparently, it is tradition for Toulouse-based aircraft-maker Airbus to bestow the airline signatory for each plane it sells with a bottle of Armagnac, a brandy from Gascony, southeast of Bordeaux. Armagnac, like any quality tipple, gets better and more expensive with age. At Airbus's factory in Toulouse, the cheque-signer is presented with a bottle made in the year of his or her birth.

When Cathay picked up its 100th aircraft in Toulouse last month, at least one of its 50-something executives hoped to convince the Airbus mob he was born in the 1920s.

fedex tight-lipped on china hub

Expect Memphis-based integrator Federal Express (FedEx) to make a major China announcement in the next few weeks.

Lai See's spies in the mainland insist FedEx is having four Boeing 737 passenger aircraft converted to freighter configuration at an airline chop shop near Jinan; they are the initial units in a joint-venture cargo airline that will focus on domestic China distribution.

FedEx 14 months ago agreed to spend US$150 million to build a hub at Guangzhou's Baiyun airport, a fraction of 2.4 billion yuan the airport's management group will spend on the airport to prepare for the parcel delivery company's arrival.

From a regulatory perspective, the flurry of activity was made possible by the latest Sino-US air services agreement, which gave US carriers virtually unlimited flexibility in the number and type of international freight services they offer on the mainland. But the deal fell short of giving them domestic distribution rights, which is why FedEx is desperate to get that piece in place before its hub opens in 2008.

It is being tight-lipped about where the domestic hub will be located and which mainland airline it will entrust with majority control of its venture - China does not allow majority foreign ownership of a domestic airline. Lai See's money is on a subsidiary of China Southern.

bureau takes its own sweet time

If patience is a virtue, then the Hong Kong government appears determined to instil its citizens with the highest moral standards.

The Economic Development and Labour Bureau said yesterday that 'progress' had been made on deciding whether to build a HK$1.3 billion logistics park on 75 hectares of reclaimed land on Lantau, some six years after the project's conception. 'A detailed feasibility study will be completed this year,' the bureau said.

The McClier report in 2000 highlighted 'acute demand' for a near-airport facility to support the time-definite trade sectors that underpin our air cargo success story. A 'Lantau Logistics Park' concept went to Legco in December 2004 and three months later the bureau awarded a HK$7.2 million feasibility study to Arup Hong Kong.

One could be forgiven for thinking 'speed to market' is a concept that gets lost in Government House.

what goes up must come down

Airlines that jumped into the jet fuel futures market in the past few months must be kicking themselves right now.

The price of a barrel of jet fuel traded in Singapore closed at US$81.85 yesterday, the lowest level since early April and 12 per cent lower than August high of US$93.

After five months of relentless rises in the airlines' fuel costs, even the bravest executives were forced to buy more cover recently.

Now they get to watch as what seemed to go up forever, inevitably comes back down.