Travellers' Checks | The first direct London to Hong Kong flight 70 years ago took a total of 37 hours

The first direct commercial flights between London and Hong Kong began 70 years ago – on August 23, 1949 – with the launch of a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service from Heathrow. BOAC flying boats were already coming out from Southampton, but the airline’s new four-engine Canadair Argo­naut aircraft had pressurised cabins, allowing them to operate at twice the speed and altitude of their compar­atively cumbersome counterparts. They could also fly much further without refuelling, and carried more than twice as many long-haul passengers.

The first Argo­naut was due to arrive from Heathrow on August 26, but engine trouble forced a delay in Karachi. It eventually got here three days late, after a total of 37 hours in the air.

Up to 40 passengers flying from Hong Kong to London, it was reported locally, could now look forward to in-flight com­forts including “a ladies’ powder room painted in dainty pale blue and fitted with a dressing table” and adjustable seats “uphol­stered in corporation blue Bedford cord”. Gentlemen were given a dove-grey dressing room with two washbasins and electric razor sockets. At the rear of the cabin was a lounge area with a semicircular six-seat sofa with a folding table, and all needs and desires were fulfilled by “two stewards and a stewardess”.

Unfortunately the five Argo­nauts deployed on the route were grounded due to a mechanical glitch, just as the second flight was due to depart Hong Kong. They were reinstated in mid October, and soon Hongkongers were flying to London twice weekly in modern comfort, albeit with overnight hotel stops in Rangoon, Karachi and Cairo. More spacious, but also more susceptible to bad weather and turbu­lence, and taking five or six days to reach England, the last of the BOAC flying boats took off from Victoria Harbour in 1951.

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