TNAG-0777-FCO40-981-Involvement-of-Hong-Kong-in-air-services-agreements-1978 — Page 159

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reasonable to do so, having taken into account all the relevant, sometimes

conflicting, considerations. In addition to the Guidance criteria, the

Authority must take into account that the approval of other governments is'

necessary before tariff proposals can be implemented; the fact that tariff

agreements are compromises which inevitably reflect the differing views and

policies of airlines and their governments; and the need for the tariffs on

one route to be compatible with those on adjacent and parallel routes. Failure

to keep a sensible relationship between the tariffs on such routes can produce

anomalies which undermine the tariff structure as a whole and cause serious

distortions in traffic flows. There is therefore some limit on the scope for

independent action by any regulatory authority, and the Authority must weight

up carefully all the factors and risks when taking its decisions on tariff

proposals.

6. Before taking such decisions, it is the Authority's practice to send to

the main British territories overseas a summary of the proposals affecting

them, together (where appropriate) with an abstract of the economic justification

provided by the British carrier concerned, and to invite comments on the proposal:

2

G

It is not however practicable to invite comments from all such territories

because the tariffs affecting them are often not specified (i.e. they have

to be constructed over other points for which fares are specified this can

involve a large number of individual calculations), and because of the time

scales and deadlines which derive from the ASAS. It is important for the

territories to send their comments quickly both because of these ASA dealines

and because of the need for the Authority to announce its decision in good time.

As explained in paragraph 4 even though dissatisfaction does not have to

be expressed under ASAS when disapproving (or witholding approval on) an IATA

agreement, such agreements cannot be declared effective until all the necessary

government approvals have been given and delays in that respect can result in

collapse of the agreement. Furthermore, an IATA agreement is often followed

by matching bilateral filings from non-IATA carriers and, of course, where there

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