TNAG-1373-FCO40-1819-Ministerial-visits-from-the-UK-to-Hong-Kong-1985 — Page 99

BACKGROUND

CONFIDENTIAL

AIR SERVICES

Hong Kong/PRC Air Services

1.

First round of talks on Air

Hong Kong and China took place in

considerable imbalance

Services between the UK,

Peking in September. A

exists on scheduled routes between

Hong Kong and

and China in favour of CAAC, the Chinese airline,

which currently operates over 50 scheduled services to Hong Kong each week compared to 3 Cathay Pacific scheduled flights

to Shanghai, one British Airways scheduled flight to Peking and

one CPA charter flight to Peking. We hope to persuade the

Chinese to allow Cathay Pacific to operate at least 2 scheduled

flights to Peking each week and preferably 3, in addition to

the scheduled Shanghai flights.

2.

more

Agreement was reached at the first round of talks that

scheduled services were required between Hong Kong, Peking

and Shanghai but it was not possible to agree details. The

outcome was badly received in Hong Kong and it is important for

confidence there that Hong Kong based airlines, especially CPA,

are seen soon to obtain a fairer share of scheduled services.

3.

Since the last round of talks, the Secretary of State for

Transport has visited Peking and senior DTP officials have recently completed the annual Civil Aviation review in Hong

Kong. The next round of talks with the Chinese will begin on

11 November in London.

Dragonair

4.

Since the signing of the Joint Declaration a number of new

airlines have been formed in Hong Kong. Of these, the most

significant, and the only one to have obtained an airline

actually operate an aeroplane,

origins are murky but they are

operator's certificate

Dragonair.

and

Dragonair's

CONFIDENTIAL

is