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British Trade Commission in Hong Kong
9th Floor Gammon House 12 Harcourt Road Hong Kong
Mail Address PO Box No 528 Hong Kong
Telex HX 73031 Cable Address Uktrade Hong Kong Telephone 5-230176
Mr. Drency
HIC Gail
Aviani.
J. Ashwood, Esq., CRE 4,
Department of Trade, Victoria Street.
Your reference
Our reference ECO 030/16
Date 15 August, 1977.
J'an Tuin,
BRITISH AIRWAYS IN HONG KONG
It did not take me very long to detect a wide-spread feeling of dismay at the performance of British Airways on the London/Hong Kong route.
As you probably know my own flight developed engine trouble in Bombay with the result that we were over 24 hours late in Hong Kong. The comments of most of the passengers, who, in the first class included several senior representatives of British banks and consultants in Hong Kong, were unprintable.
Suffice to say
that even before I took up my duties in Hong Kong I had to deal with two angry men who said that they would never again fly British Airways if they could possibly help it.
2. I naturally brought this to the attention of Don Ford, the extremely helpful and hard pressed local manager of British Airways, who is in no way responsible for break downs occuring at intermediate stops. I told him that the complaint of the passengers was the complete absence of information or assistance from any senior BA official at Bombay Airport where we were incarcerated for 8 hours while arrangements were made to take us to a hotel. The accommodation and food provided at the hotel was excellent but neither there nor at the airport did anyone appear to know what was happening; all that we needed was the posting of regular bulletins on a centrally located notice board. Don Ford tells me that he has complained about this lack of care for stranded passengers on many occasions but nothing seems to happen. The problem arises from the fact that the crew who have landed the aircraft go off duty and the new crew do not take over until the repairs are effected; there is thus a hiatus in passenger public relations which the local resident staff seem unable to cover. I do not want you to gain the impression that I am grumbling about my own experience or even that of Jim Morrison who experienced exactly the same problem three weeks later (his flight was, in fact, abandoned in Bahrain with the result that he had to transfer first to Qantas as far as Singapore and then Cathay Pacific after a night stop); we have both had due apologies. My point is that there is a wide-spread discussion of BA's bad punctuality record on the Hong Kong route. While most passengers accept that angine failures are inevitable with most airlines they do tend to be incensed by the lack of adequate arrangements for dealing with stranded passengers at intermediate stops.
3.
I am prompted to write at this late stage by the exchanges at last Thursday's
/meeting......
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