Hong Kong Airways - Jardine & Swire Battle For The HK Aviation Franchise

Jardine & Swire Battle For The HK Aviation Franchise

The Swire perspective - pg 117 of "Beyond Lion Rock" Young, Gavin 1988:-

On 13 May 1949 an agreement was signed by Cathay Pacific (Jock Swire) and BOAC (on behalf of Hong Kong Airways) along Grantham's (@) lines of allocation. Cathay secured the valuable routes to and from Bangkok, Singapore, Haiphong, Saigon, Sandakan, Jesselton (now Kota Kinabalu) and Labuan, and Rangoon (with an extension possible to Calcutta). That left HKA with Canton, Macao, Shanghai and Tientsin, not, after all, Japan. The 'Battle of Hong Kong Airways', as Jock called it, did not end here. It dragged on for another ten years. In November 1949 BOAC sold Hong Kong Airways back to Jardines, but it soon ran for cover to another 'big brother', in a charter association with the American company Northwest Airlines on the Taipei and Tokyo services. Absurdly, HKA was still an airline without planes of its own. Then in 1953, the British Government attempted to bring about a merger between Cathay Pacific, BOAC and Hong Kong Airways to form a single regional airline. This came to nothing for two reasons: first, disaster hit BOAC in the quick succession of two Comet jets and a Constellation, and, secondly, Hong Kong Airways was doomed to be a dead loss in anyone's hands. Later still, BOAC came back having decided to try once more to bring Hong Kong Airways to profitable life. Two new short-range Viscounts arrived in Hong Kong in an attempt to make something of the Tokyo route. But there was still no profit in that, and finally Lord Rennell of BOAC meekly approached Jock Swire to ask if he would be willing to swap Hong Kong Airways for a parcel of Cathay Pacific shares. Jock said he considered Hong Kong Airways worthless and a liability, but nevertheless, as of 1 July 1959, Cathay Pacific took over Hong Kong Airways though spurning the two Viscounts - and BOAC got 15 per cent of Cathay Pacific's shares and a seat on the Board.

The Jardine perspective - pg 236 of "The Thistle & the Jade" Keswick, Maggie Ed. 1982:-

Characteristically, Jardines was a pioneer of air travel in the Far East. As early as the 1918 Armistice, CH Ross (then in charge in London) commissioned a feasibility study for a Jardine air service to run in conjunction with Vickers - for whom the firm were agents - from Hong Kong to Shanghai via the coastal ports. And later, when Imperial Airways - the precursor of British Airways - opened their first service to Shanghai with flying boats, they appointed Jardines general agents, although they did not use agents at any other major city on their routes. After World War II, in association with BOAC, Jardines also successfully launched Hong Kong Airways, which held the rights to fly from Hong Kong into China, to Taipei and Osaka, and - jointly with Cathay Pacific to the Philippines. With the great political change in China they lost the key route: Hugh Barton, later Taipan, flew from Shanghai on the last Hongkong Airways plane. And, after trying other ventures, including two Viscounts on the Philippine flights, Jardines eventually gave up Hong Kong Airways and sold off the rights to Cathay Pacific.