CONFIDENTIAL.
AIR SERVICES TALKS INVOLVING CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS
A. THE BACKGROUND
Her Majesty's Government uses traffic rights at Hong Kong airport as
a negotiating asset in the exchange of air traffic rights with other
Governments. In these negotiations Her Majesty's Government is concerned with
maintaining and, where possible, improving the position both of the United Kingdom airline, British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC), and of the British regional carrier, Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CPA).
2.
The purpose of this paper is to set out CPA's value to the United Kingdom, to Hong Kong, and to British aviation interests generally; to state that airline's legitimate aims; and to suggest principles for the conduct of air services negotiations, so as to ensure that the interests of Hong Kong and CPA are properly safeguarded. The paper also seeks, both in the wider economic interests of Hong Kong and in the commercial interests of CPA, a properly defined status for the Hong Kong representative on British negotiating terms.
3.
Cathay Pacific Airways Limited, a carrier registered and based in the Colony, is recognised by Her Majesty's Government as a designated British airline in the areas of South East Asia, the Far East and Australasia. This airline faces very keen commercial competition, particularly from the regional carriers of various emergent countries in South East-Asia; competitors whose operations are backed by the use of the fullest political leverage that these countries are able to apply. If it is to maintain its present position as a major contributor both to the sterling area as a whole and to the economy of Hong Kong, it will need strong support both from the United Kingdom Government and from the Government of Hong Kong.
4.
CPA is recognised by the Hong Kong Government as being the
equivalent of its national airline. In international matters, the Hong Kong Government is concerned to further CPA's interests just as any other
Government would support the interests of its chosen instrument.
Darmed note
Drafter lange by fiend
but as
reflected
い
with Bluk. Kdy
')
A