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In response to media enquiries on the delay of the inaugural flight of Oasis Hong Kong Airlines (OHK), a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Department said the following today (October 26):
Upon receiving report from OHK shortly before the schedule departure time of its inaugural flight of October 25, 2006, that it had encountered difficulties in obtaining overflying permission from the Russian aviation authorities, the Civil Aviation Department had provided all possible assistance to OHK to resolve the problem. The flight eventually took off at 1.19pm today (October 26) from the Hong Kong International Airport.
The spokesman pointed out that according to international practice, the responsibility to obtain prior permission from relevant aviation authorities to overfly territories enroute and to land at the destination all along rests with the airline, as only the airline concerned can provide all the necessary technical and operational information of the flight concerned (e.g. aircraft type and equipment configuration, exact routing, departure time and arrival time, etc).
The Civil Aviation Department stresses that airlines must take full responsibility to fulfil their obligations to passengers. Should operations be disrupted by unforeseen circumstances airlines must keep passengers informed as early as possible and make alternative arrangements to minimise inconvenience to passengers. The department is seeking further information from OHK on this incident and has reminded the airline to take all necessary measures to prevent recurrence of similar incidents in the future.
Ends/Thursday, October 26, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:20
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