'The opening up between Hong Kong and mainland China will bring in travellers from different areas of China. These Chinese travellers can benefit from our daily services to San Francisco, and also the most frequent direct daily services to Singapore,' said a spokesman from Singapore Airlines, which expects the Indian and the mainland markets to continue to grow as these countries become more open.

Naturally, Cathay has also responded positively to the new air service agreements. 'This further enhances the status of Hong Kong as the premier gateway to the mainland and a leading international aviation hub,' said Cathay spokeswoman Carolyn Leung.

Despite the inevitable increase in competition between airlines, she said that her company welcomed other carriers bringing passengers into Hong Kong.

'Aviation has always been competitive in Hong Kong. There are 85 airlines operating services to some 150 destinations around the world from Hong Kong International Airport. We do not object to new airlines establishing their base, or operating services, out of Hong Kong,' she said.

The opening up of routes into the mainland and India has meant that Cathay has had to increase its fleet of aircraft.

It has 153 aircraft and more than 50 are on order, to be delivered within the next five years.

However, finding flight crews for these aircraft is proving to be a challenge. The airlines plan to recruit 270 pilots this year. But pilots are in high demand across the world, as airlines continue to expand, and Hong Kong-based airlines have the additional challenge of being unable to draw pilots from the military.

Cabin crew are also difficult to hire as airlines are competing against the burgeoning service industry in Macau, and new hotels and the Disneyland theme park in Hong Kong.

'It's a very service oriented position,' explained Shirley Au-yeung, manager cabin crew at Cathay, who faces the task of recruiting 1,400 cabin crew this year. 'The personality, the warmth, the communication skills, they are crucial. The attitude is not something we can train, so the way people present themselves, the way they interact and the passion to really help people, these are the kind of characteristics that we look for,' she said.

In addition, cabin crew need to be secondary graduates, speak English and preferably Putonghua, and they have to have an arm reach of 208cm or more so that they can reach the overhead lockers.

Because of the glamorous reputation of the job, cabin crew managers make sure that potential recruits are realistic about the job ahead of them.

'Even at recruitment stage, when we talk to the candidates, we manage their expectations. We let them know that it is hard work, physically as well as mentally, because of the diversity of the passenger profile. Also they have to adjust to the jet lag, they have to work on some days when everyone is on holiday, on their birthday, on Valentine's Day, and that is something that they need to be prepared for,' Ms Au-yeung said.

She explained that the recruitment team at Cathay were under pressure to find and recruit cabin crew.

'We have to be more creative in our recruitment marketing activity to attract more people to the industry. The majority of our applicants are fresh graduates and we want to expand our market to those people who are working, and not just in the service industry. We have to do a lot more to attract professionals from other segments,' she said.