2.
meeting of the Legislative Council when David Jeaffreson, the Acting Financial Secretary, reported that he was pursuing the matter of British Airways punctuality with the Civil Aviation Authority in London, They are adequately described in the enclosed press report which also contains the robust reply given by the BA manager, Don Ford. I think you should be aware that David Jeaffreson seems to have let BA off lightly. I enclose copies of a study of their timekeeping performance compared with that of Japan Airlines, Qantas, Lufthansa and Pan Am for the month of January, 1977 which was given to me by Brian Keep, Acting Director of Civil Aviation, when I made my introductory call. Keep told me that even a cursory glance at the figures shows that with the exception of the flights to and from London via Brunei, British Airways performance was far worse than any of their competitors. He has subsequently sent me figures for British Airways timekeeping performance in June and the first 10 days of July. It is clear that the situation got worse over this period and I am sure that this prompted the Hong Kong Government to write to the CAA.
4. I do not think that there is any action necessary by you as I presume that the CAA will deal directly with the Hong Kong Government's complaint. But I thought I should report the developments in case the matter comes up in HKTAG. I hope that with the recent introduction into service of the three new Boeing 747's, we shall see a very rapid improvement; indeed in the last few weeks (when I have had to meet a succession of visitors arriving from London) delays have not been more than two to three hours, which is not too bad for such a long journey. I enclose an extra copy of this letter which you may wish to send to CA Division as I imagine that they will become involved in the preparation of CAA's reply to the Hong Kong Government.
Pour ever
fuck
D. M. March
C.C.
W. Gauld, Esq., BCARFE,
Hong Kong.
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