Cathay Pacific chairman James Hughes-Hallett and executives made a low-key visit to Beijing last month to lobby aviation officials for permission to resume flights to the mainland, which were stopped 12 years ago.
Details of the trip, which was confirmed by the airline yesterday, come as the Hong Kong government prepares to gazette Cathay's formal application to fly to destinations such as Shanghai, Beijing and, possibly, Xiamen.
Aviation analysts said Cathay Pacific flights from Hong Kong to mainland destinations would improve services for passengers but were unlikely to result in lower ticket prices because of the carrier's close co-operation with Dragonair, the other SAR airline.
Flights between Hong Kong and mainland destinations are operated by Dragonair and Chinese airlines such as those based in Shanghai and Guangzhou. Cathay stopped flying to Beijing and Shanghai in 1990 under a deal not to compete with Dragonair.
Its application, the gazetting of which is a legal requirement and allows interested parties to lodge submissions with the government, follows the granting to Dragonair last month of rights to fly to Taipei, a move which effectively ended Hong Kong's 'one airline, one route' non-competition policy.
Cathay spokeswoman Lisa Wong Lai-shan confirmed that Mr Hughes-Hallett and chief operating officer Philip Chen Nan-lok made the visit to meet Civil Aviation Administration of China senior officials, including director-general Yang Yuanyuan, in mid-July. Ms Wong said the visit had prompted Mr Yang to indicate to mainland media that the CAAC did not in principle oppose Cathay's plans. China's top civil aviation official said early this month that he would not stand in the way of an application for Cathay flights to the mainland.
