Exclusive | Hong Kong’s Greater Bay Airlines chooses China’s National Day for maiden flight
- A ‘symbolic’ charter flight to Beijing on October 1 comes as coronavirus pandemic maintains a stranglehold on global travel
- Company director Stanley Hui tells Post carrier expects to get its air operating certificate on September 17 – despite roadblocks from unnamed rivals
Greater Bay Airlines (GBA), bidding to be Hong Kong’s newest carrier, will make its inaugural flight on October 1, the 72nd anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, the Post has learned.
While a timeline has now been set, GBA is still awaiting its operating licence and air operating certificate. It expects to get the latter, which covers the commercial and safety requirements necessary to take-off, on September 17, Stanley Hui Hon-chung revealed in an interview.
“In a nutshell, the airline is taking shape,” the director said, while tempering expectations given the collapse in travel demand amid the pandemic.
GBA’s flight to Beijing was a deliberate decision, “symbolic” of the airline’s development plan to operate regular flights to the capital and nationwide, Hui told the Post.
