Air Transport (Licensing of Air Services) Regulations). No other airline has rights to operate a through plane scheduled service on it,
5
Where a monopoly situation has to be accepted in the case of certain utility undertakings, the Hong Kong Government usually takes upon itself the responsibility of protecting the interests of consumers. It does so by a combination of the following means:
by issuing a franchise for that activity or service;
(a)
(b)
by controlling the prices that might be charged;
(c)
(d)
흐
(e)
by setting the accounting and investment policies to be followed;
by appointing government directors to sit on the boards of the undertakings concerned; and
by determining the level of profits which can be made.
6
In the case of the BA service on the cabotage route, the Hong Kong Government is not itself in a position to impose any of the se controls. It has no information on the level of profits made on the cabotage service, no basis for judgement on whether resources are being efficiently employed, nor any means of directly influencing BA's policies. Consequently, the Hong Kong Government finds itself in a difficult position when criticisms are voiced about BA's performance.
Standards of BA's service
7
For a number of years now public dissatisfaction over the standard of service offered by BA has been growing. It has been reflected in the correspondence columns of daily newspapers, on radio programmes and in questions asked in the Legislative Council. It has centred largely on poor punctuality, insufficient capacity and poor service to customers.
A
8
As one consequence of the se criticisms, the Director of Civil Aviation has maintained since November 1976 a record of BA's time-keeping and available capacity into and out of Hong Kong. The se records are summarised on a monthly basis at Annex A. They show that the highest percentage of flights delayed over 15 minutes (the generally accepted international definition of "late") was 86% in August
G.S. 166
CONFIDENTIAL