of Kowloon Bay makes it admirably suited for both land and sea- drome operation under a centralized control. The airport is under the administration of the Civil Aviation Department, which provides facilities for air traffic control, telecommunications, safety services and air-sea rescue coordination. An Air Advisory Board deals with matters of policy, with the Director of Civil Aviation as chairman. Full customs and immigration facilities are available during flying hours, which are from dawn to dusk. Night landings are only permitted in cases of emergency owing to the mountainous terrain around the airfield and the lack of adequate landing aids.
The proposal to construct a new airfield on the south shore of Deep Bay in the New Territories, which was mentioned in last year's Report, was for various reasons abandoned during the year. In 1950 the two runways at Kai Tak were strengthened by the laying of an asphalt carpet. While this has undoubtedly improved the runways, they are still not considered to be of sufficient length for landings by commercial jet aircraft or the heavier Boeing Stratocruiser types. This is a distinct disadvantage since Hong Kong is geographically situated on several of the world's major trunk routes, but with commercial carriers developing in size and speed as they are at present, unless real improvements can be made at Kai Tak there is a danger of these trunk routes being reorganized by-passing Hong Kong. This serious position regarding the Colony's air future led to the Ministry of Civil Aviation despatching a team of technical experts to the Colony during the summer to carry out a preliminary survey for expanding the airport and its facilities "in order to cater with safety and regularity for modern and larger aircraft”.
The number of companies operating services through Hong Kong was reduced in December from 13 to 12 by the suspension of operations by the Scandinavian Air Lines system owing to failure to obtain traffic rights.
Two Hong Kong companies are at present operating airlines, Hong Kong Airways, which has regular flights by DC.3 to Japan via Formosa, and Cathay Pacific Airways, which provides services by DC.3 and DC.4 to Singapore, Bangkok, Manila and airports in North Borneo. B.O.A.C. run frequent and regular services to the United Kingdom, Japan and Singapore, and the Colony is also on the routes of Pan American World Airways, Canadian Pacific Air Lines, Qantas Empire Airways (Australia), Braathens S.A.F.E. Airtransport (Norway), Air France, Philippine Air Lines, Siamese Airways, Pacific Overseas Air Lines (Siam) and Civil Air Transport (based in Formosa). There are also several companies, British and foreign, which operate non-scheduled
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