布政司署
香港下亞畢道
本署檔號 OUR REF.:
CR 7/951/73
* YOUR Ref.:
R.J.T. McLaren, Esq.,
Hong Kong & General Department,
Foreign & Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street,
LONDON SW1A 2AH,
U.K.
Dawn Robin,
GOVERNMENT SECRETARIAT
LOWER ALBERT ROAD
HONG KONG
See DH
23rd March 1979
HKK 184/5
ROTAVED IN RIGORY 5o. 61
S
5 APR 1979
No! Jo
The purpose of this letter is to initiate
a more formal dialogue on the possibility of a second scheduled service between Hong Kong and London following certain discussions we have had with Ray Colegate of the CAA last year and with George Rogers of the DOT when he was in Hong Kong at the end of last month.
2.
One of the subjects I placed on the agenda for the latter was our dissatisfaction with the performance of British Airways on the cabotage route. There is a discontent with the quality of the service generally, but the deficiencies relate mainly to punctuality. I have been under considerable pressure on this issue in the Legislative Council - and, I am assured, would have been under greater pressure but for the rule that a question that has been fully answered may not be asked again during the same session of Council. We have raised it repeatedly with senior managers of British Airways. There has been some improvement but from a disgracefully bad base, and the public here are still far from satisfied.
3.
-
We have long concluded that one way of shaking BA into greater efficiency generally would be to introduce competition on the route, and competition from a regular scheduled service rather than by means of charter arrangements. British Airways have advanced over the years a number of reasons for their deficiencies; but more recently their troubles derive from a combination of industrial action and weather. In consequence, we (the Government) are now further persauded that the most effective competition would be provided by an airline that was not subject to the problems associated with being based in the United Kingdom, in other words by an airline
/based
Page 195Page 196
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.