Hong Kong Airlines' 'deviations' a concern, says transport chief Anthony Cheung

Hong Kong Airlines has been told to improve its practices after seven incidents where pilots "deviated from regulations", with one ignoring an instruction from air traffic control not to climb to an altitude where there was other aircraft.

Secretary for Transport and Housing Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung has expressed concern over the disclosures, saying that "even one incident is too many".

He also said that the Civil Aviation Department had demanded an explanation from the airline on why the deviations happened. The department has also demanded improvements from the airline.

The Civil Aviation Department confirmed that the budget airline experienced seven deviations from regulations from August to mid-September, but a spokeswoman said that none of the deviations posed safety threats, as many were only "technical infringements".

Apple Daily reported yesterday that the budget airline faced seven aviation "incidents" from August to mid-September. On August 8, the airline's pilot on board a flight to Bangkok mistook the runway clearance of another plane as its own. The plane crossed the red stop line but the situation was immediately rectified by the air traffic controllers in Chek Lap Kok.

On 16 September, another pilot on board a plane to Nanjing was originally instructed to climb to 9,000 feet.