VR-HFI Vickers 760
Viscount
(c/n 186)
In order to protect its interests in
the Far East, BOAC founded Hong Kong Airways in 1947.
A 1949 Hong
Kong government decree awarded HKA route rights north of the colony, and
Cathy
Pacific those to the south. Hence HKA went head to head
with CNAC on flights from
the
colony to Canton. They did well, though, and eventually built up
to four flights a day. After
the
Communist take-over of the mainland HKA's operations were limited to
the route to Taiwan.
Two Viscounts were ordered
in 1957. Hong Kong Airways was never the force Cathay Pacific
was to become,
however, and the airline was merged into the latter carrier on 30 June
1959.
Cathay did not
retain the Viscounts and this one went to Malayan Airways as 9M-ALY.