Hong Kong Airways
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Hongkong Airways was an airline based in Hong Kong in the 1950s. The initial owner of the airline was BOAC, although Jardines (怡和) were General Sales Agents and subsequently owners before selling back to BOAC, the previous name of British Airways
From pg117 of "Beyond Lion Rock" Young, Gavin. 1988: - "On 13 May 1949 an agreement 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 HKA 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, BOAC and HKA 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, HKA was doomed to be a dead loss in anyone's hands. Later still, BOAC came back having decided to try once more to bring HKA 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 HKA for a parcel of Cathay shares. Jock said he considered HKA worthless and a liability, but nevertheless, as of 1 July 1959, Cathay took over HKA - though spurning the two Viscounts - and BOAC got 15 per cent of Cathay's shares and a seat on the Board."
From 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 Hongkong 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 Hongkong Airways and sold off the rights to Cathay Pacific."
Jardine Matheson (怡和) remained involved in aviation through Jardine Airways which was an exclusive General Sales Agency in HK for many major airlines including British Airways until the year 2000. Another Jardine affiliate "Eupo Air" also chartered seats on scheduled flights including British Airways flights on the London route for many years, in the same manner as HKA chartered seats on Northwest Airlines. Today (2006) Jardines' aviation interests in HK are principally ground handling under the banner of Jardine Aviation Services, however, a small GSA for British Airways Holidays (www.eupoair.com) does still exist.
Hongkong Airways operated a fleet of Vickers Viscount aircraft.
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