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end of the 1980s. It is built on reclaimed land
technically in the New Territories.
being considered.
A new airport is
This too would have to be in the New
Territories. A move would require Chinese consent to
new air traffic patterns, and some assurance of
continued United Kingdom responsibility for air services to
justify the very large investment (about £4 billion, including
necessary associated investment) which could not possibly
be recouped before 1997, let alone the finance raised in
present circumstances. Thus, while uncertainty over the
future continues, no decisions on the new airport can be
taken.
9.
Sovereignty is critically important in the context of
air services. Article 1 of the Chicago Convention 1944,
to which the United Kingdom and China are both signatories,
recognises 'that every State has complete and exclusive
sovereignty over the air space above its territory'.
Article 2 defines territory of a State as 'the land areas
and the territorial waters adjacent thereto under the
sovereignty, suzerainty, protection or mandate of such
State'. On these foundations all air services have to be
agreed by the States exercising sovereignty over the
territories concerned, and it is normal to share the services
on an approximately equal basis where they are international
services but to reserve them for national carriers only
where they are 'cabotage services linking points in a
country's own territory'.
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/Possible