A judicial review against the government approval allowing Cathay Pacific to effectively reduce the minimum amount of in-flight rest time for its cabin crews on long-haul routes failed in the High Court.
Mr Justice Michael Hartmann, in the Court of First Instance, was delivering his judgment yesterday after the judicial review concluded last month.
He said the director-general of civil aviation had discretionary power in determining the conditions that should be imposed to prevent air-crew fatigue.
'The Hong Kong government, and specifically the director-general, is under a constitutional obligation to maintain Hong Kong's status as a centre of civil aviation,' the judge said, giving his ruling on a judicial review sought by Cathay's Flight Attendants Union.
The judgment said: 'The executive power given to the director-general is a discretionary power. It must be exercised flexibly ... As to the manner in which the director-general may change his policy, it seems to me that he may do so in any rational manner that he wishes. He devised the policy. It is his policy.'
The judge also accepted the department's argument that the director-general's letter approving the new scheme was a policy document, not legislation. Therefore, the director-general of the aviation department was not bound to his own guidelines.
