TNAG-0965-FCO40-1184-Air-services-between-the-UK-and-Hong-Kong-1980 — Page 36

-

- 10

should accordingly be only given such weight as the Authority thought fit. Laker's estimate of such increased tour traffic was an extra 30,000 return passages in the first year, with massive increases

after that.

22.

All the tour operators said they would welcome

the presence of Laker on the route and indeed that is

hardly surprising. Clearly the more competition the better when one is looking for large numbers of very low-price seats. While none of them said they had sought such seats from existing operators on this route and had been refused, they did refer to the good business

relationship they had with Laker. BCal and CPA in

particular produced evidence of intensive efforts to sell tours using their aircraft and said that they could and would make seats available to tour operators at very low

fares. BCal said that in the first 2 months of its

operations it had already carried 900 tour passengers and the publicity material produced strongly supported the argument that vigorous efforts were being made in this field. BCal's estimate is for 5,000 tours in the period

March to November 1980. Sir Freddie, we were satisfied, did not have a monopoly on beating the bushes. The Authority did give very full consideration to this

evidence as to package tour operations.

While convinced of the substantial demand the

Authority did not see any evidence either that Laker could

offer seats at a price which the others could not match, that the seats required were not available or, if demand increased, would not be made available, from existing

carriers.

23.

The effect of such evidence is, in the opinion of the Authority, to establish that there is a substantial demand for capacity from tour operators and the fact that Hong Kong is a long-haul route from Europe or the USA will not prevent people coming if and clearly this is the

-

/.....