by Nigel Huxtable

Las Vegas Sands is currently restricted to hourly night time sailings of its Hong Kong ferry service as the government struggles to provide 24-hour immigration services at the city's newest terminal.
Its boats run between the temporary ferry terminal at Pac On in Taipa and Hong Kong every half hour during the day, however this is reduced to hourly services from 18.30 pm in Macau and two hour intervals from 1:00 am until 5:00 am.. The half hour service commences again at 7.30 am.
“By request from the Macau government we run only hourly [services] after dark,” said Asian region president Stephen Weaver yesterday during a press conference.
The government had asked for the lower frequency while it expands its immigration service to deal with the growing demand at its borders, he added.
Hong Kong visitors to major events in Macau, such as last year's NBA basketball have at times found themselves stranded after the event, unable to get a return ticket on full ferries.
This month Sands' ten ferries carried 500,000 people and currently have a capacity to ferry up to 21,000 passengers per day.
If given the go-ahead by the government, Sands intends to increase its sailing frequency to intervals of 15 minutes, doubling its capacity, said Mr Weaver.

Macau Dragon testing boat
The second company to be granted permission to sail from the temporary terminal, Macau Dragon, is currently testing its first boat, which is significantly larger than the existing ferries with a capacity of 1,200 passengers, said Mr Weaver. Existing boats operating the service can carry approximately 400 people.
The group is also intends to operate a second boat between Hong Kong and Macau, he added.