HKB 020 126
Ry 19,~
Miso Marodin Mr. Store 18/12
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FROM:
RJT McLaren
M
म
fa
DATE:
17 December 1990
W
18/12
CC:
Mr Fairweather
Mr Paul, HKD
Mr Martin, Emergency
Unit
Mr Gore-Booth
CATHAY PACIFIC AIRWAYS FLIES THROUGH THE MIDDLE EAST
1. As agreed, I spoke to Sir Adrian Swire this morning. I was grateful to Mr Martin of the Emergency Unit for supplementary briefing beforehand.
2. I began by reading out the text of the Phase II announcement to be made today (UKDEL NATO telno 631), which I said would be passed to Cathay's Operations people by the Emergency Unit. I said that although this anouncement was being made earlier than had seemed likely at one time we remained concerned about the implications of a suspension of CPA's services on 10 January. Our advice was targeted on dependants. We were not advising other members of the British community to leave and we expected a high proportion of them to stay. They would need the assurance of regular air services.
3.
Sir A Swire said that he had been away from London for a couple of days but had been aware of our previous concern. He had sent a telex to Cathay's Managing Director in Hong Kong at the end of last week asking to be briefed on Management's assessment of the situation and the reasons why they had made a contingency plan to stop serving the Gulf from 10 January. He read me the response he had just seen, which mentioned the Managing Director's conversation with the Hong Kong Government on 14 December and included the explanations and arguments reported in Hong Kong telno 3723. In response to my questions Sir A Swire said that Cathay had, like BA, been switching crews at Dubai for some time. They were also exploring a variety of possible alternative routings to take their aircraft away from the areas most likely to be at risk if hostilities broke out.
4. At the end of our conversation Sir A Swire said he had taken note of our continuing concern about Cathay's contingency decision and would reflect on it (I did not
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