Hong Kong airport have it loaded into the system from 1st September, but nothing is confirmed until the EU give approval for the deal that has been struck between the UK and Hong Kong.
Basically, and forgive me if I'm telling you anything you already know here, the complications of international air travel are a less than easy to navigate.
Virgin have sought what's known as the Chicago convention 'fifth freedom rights' from Hong Kong, which basically will allow them to fly into Hong Kong, pick up passengers and then fly onto another country (in this case, Australia). However, in order to negotiate those rights, the British has had to give Cathay Pacific fifth-freedom to fly from LHR-JFK. This is further complicated the EC are involved in a common 'Open Skies' policy, and will need to approve this deal.
If you thought that wasn't tricky enough, the British did a deal with the US after World War II called Bermuda II. As part of this, it restricted the number of carriers allowed to fly from LHR to the US down to two British and two American (initially Pan Am, TWA and BOAC - since there wasn't really another British airline big enough to play ball in the long term until Branson came along). Now that those routes have been stitched up, giving fifth freedom to CX is understandably irksome to the likes of bmi, who have been trying to expand their transatlantic operations out of LHR for some years, but hampered by the restrictions of Bermuda II. They, and other American carriers like United, are making their objections well known to the EC, and all this is likely to extend the decision of Loyola de Palacio - the woman in Europe who will ultimately make the call.
Virgin are still on record as being pretty confident that they'll get the approval, and I - for one - very much hope they do. I'd like nothing more than celebrating Virgin Atlantic's 20th Birthday in Sydney.
However, a bit early to worry about the mileage requirements
Let's all keep out collective fingers crossed that the EC give Sir Richard the nod first.
Pix
