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(Ta Kung Pao: September 27)
Regular passenger flight between Hongkong and Kwangchow will probably start before the opening of the Kwangchow Export Commodities Fair this autumn (October 15-November 15), a Ta Kung Pao reporter in Kwangchow was confirmed of this by member of the Kwangchow bureau of the Civil Aviation Administration of China last Monday. He was told that a Chinese aviation work team from Peking will arrive in Hongkong in the next few days to finalize the agreement with the department concerned.
The Kwangchow bureau also disclosed that it is planned to have regular chartered planes for the HK-Kwangchow flights. They will set off from both places every day, but the number of flights has to depend on the number of passengers.
The flight on a Chinese-owned British Trident with a seating capacity of
100 take about 25 minutes for a single flight.
Booking will be handled by the China Travel Service and the China National Aviation Corporation here. The work of loading and unloading, cleaning and transport- tation for the plane at Kaitak is to be commissioned to the Jardine and Matheson & Co.
(Hongkong Standard: September 27)
Four-member aviation mission from China is reported to be arriving soon to finalise operational details for chartered passenger flights between Hongkong and Canton.
Another source commented that the mission's visit reflected the latest trend in Chinese industrialisation efforts to get as many technicians as possible abroad to absorb technical knowledge.
The best way to do this was to get them involved in projects connected with Chinese efforts, the source said.
A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Department said no formal application for the chartered flights had been received yet.
But it is understood that the minimum time required for the process of an application is only 72 hours in advance of a particular flight.
The director of civil aviation is empowered to grant blanket approvals for
chartered passenger flights over a period of time.
(South China Morning Post: September 28)
Travel between Hongkong and Canton will be transformed this year with the introduction of hoverferry and possibly chartered air services-and no one will be happier than hundreds of foreign businessmen who at present make the tedious and time-consuming trip by train.
Hence the prospect of travelling by air or by hovercraft from Hongkong to Canton and avoiding the inevitable delays, border crossing formalities and changing of trains will mark the beginning of a new and happier era.
A further refinement would be the speeding up of immigration formalities so that passengers who board in Hongkong or Canton can have their documents processed en route. But Hongkong people can welcome the changes now in the pipeline for these will contribute to far simpler and smoother travel between the two cities.
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