19.
9.
The Attorney General also referred to
general matters where he said we should have regard to the general public interest and in particular suggested that it would damage Hong Kong's image to be seen as restricting competition.
20.
The Attorney General said that he did not resile from the statements of principle he made to the Authority in 1979 except that he now thought that when he said that it was "mandatory to avoid uneconomic overlapping" he had pitched his case too high. The Authority, while clearly it must have regard to avoiding such overlapping, may accept it if the other factors present mean it is in the public interest to do so. He pointed out that the 1979 decision did provide for initial overlapping and the reasoning behind that was relevant to the present Laker application. Traffic had increased and he suggested that this was clearly recognised by both BCal and CPA from their applications to lift their frequency restrictions, applications which he said were significant in relation to Laker's.
21.
The main basis of Laker's argument for the grant of a licence, apart from the increase in traffic already generated, was that by doing so the Authority would not create over-capacity on the route because there was a big untapped reservoir of passengers who will only fly if Laker is on the route. These were the people referred to by the Secretary of State as the "forgotten men and women". Laker estimated that this potential was 182,000 in the first year of operation and such a massive traffic increase would virtually nullify the ill effects on the other carriers of licensing Laker. In particular Laker said there was a big demand for seats from package tour operators and he tendered several affidavits from UK and other tour operators to that effect. He also called witnesses from Japan and Taiwan to confirm demand in their areas. These affidavits were received on the basis that the deponents were not available for cross-examination and
7 ....