TNAG-0870-FCO40-1080-Air-services-between-Hong-Kong-and-the-UK-1979 — Page 129

STUDY OF THE ROUTE BETWEEN LONDON AND HONG KONG

Suggested additional information to be incorporated in revised version of Hong Kong Paper No 3

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The Paper does not say to which airport in London CPA propose to operate. In line with current policy CAA would not be allowed to onerate to Heathrow; but it is not clear whether they have Gatwick or Stansted in mind. There are runway limitations at Gatwick,

It is not known whether or not

they would affect the economics

of CPA's operations.

somo

One of the factors to be taken into account will be the balance of payments effect. It would therefore be useful to have assessment of this

More specific information is needed about the range of traffic to be carried. For example, is it proposed to carry

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part charter traffic, to meet the ethnic Chinese requirement for cheap travel? If so, what would be the proportion of this?

Hong Kong Government officials and their families on an "on demand" basis at a discounted rate?

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More information is also needed about the suggestion that when CPA switched to E747s they would wish to have traffic rights between Bahrain and London. It is stated in para 3.1 of Paper No 3 that they might have to seek these rights in order to make the service viable by wide-bodied aircraft. Since this cuts arross the Hong Kong Government's policy objective of catering for the end to end traffic a full justification is needed. Would it not, for example, be preferable to reduce the frequency so that the capacity is tailored more accurately to the end to end demand? Other relevant questious on this topic are:

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be gathered from our Jatest negotiations with the Thais that the yield on traffic between the Orient and the Gulf is almost as high as the yield between the Orient and Western Europe. This suggests that traffic rights between Bahrain and London might not be needed or might be needed only

very Limited extent. Cầu CPA put figures to this?

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What methods would CPA propose to adopt for compen- kating BA for the cost of buying the necessary rights from the Gulf States or Gulf Air?

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What are CPA's 'proposals for ensuring a reasonable bidance between capacity and demand on both the Hong Kong-Bahrain and the Bahrain-london sector?