CONFIDENTIAL
concerned, the status quo has been maintained with BA operating the services allocated to BCal during the summer season. This is an interim measure only, pending the outcome of the present review.
PROSPECTS
10.
The outcome of the review is likely to be a distinctly messy
one. The Department of Transport are negotiating toughly and seeking radical changes to the present regime. The Hong Kong
Government have more modest objectives, and look to the FCO for
protection against the claimed rapacity of BA. There is a distinct risk that the negotiations will reach deadlock and that the Hong Kong Government will invoke the support of FCO Ministers in seeking to entrench their own conception of a more balanced civil aviation
relationship. This will lead to difficult inter-Ministerial debate.
It would be best if at the present stage Lord Glenarthur could
resist any attempts to embroil him in the detail, or to secure commitments of specific support. Further briefing may be necessary
as events unfold.
FRIEGHTER SLOTS AT GATWICK
11. Cathay Pacific Airways (CPA) have been in correspondence with Department of Transport Ministers over the last few months over the allocation of time slots for their scheduled cargo freighter
services. They have not been granted all the slots they have
requested, because of passenger charter movements. CPA argue that scheduled services should have precedence over non-scheduled flights, whereas the Department of Transport believe that passengers should have precedence over cargo.
12. Demand from airlines for slots at Gatwick has grown strongly in recent years, and without some form of rationing would exceed the
airport's capacity at many times of the season and/or day. Since the main constraint at Gatwick is the capacity of the airport's single runway, and a second runway cannot be built for environmental
reasons, some form of rationing is therefore necessary. In the
main, rationing of slots is carried out by the airlines themselves, in the guise of the airport scheduling committee, operating within
CONFIDENTIAL