Remarks by STL at media session
Following are the remarks by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, at a media session after attending the inaugural ceremony of China Eastern Airlines C919 scheduled commercial flights between Shanghai and Hong Kong today (January 1):
Reporter: Firstly, would you believe in the significance of this first commercial scheduled flight of this C919 aircraft in Hong Kong? Secondly, you mentioned that the Hong Kong Government will find ways for the internationalisation of C919 in three ways. How do you ensure that these measures will actually be carried out? And looking forward, what do you think will be the next step for the Government beyond these three measures?
Secretary for Transport and Logistics: Thank you. I think the inaugural commercial flight of the C919 between Hong Kong and Shanghai has a very important historic significance for Hong Kong. Hong Kong, being an international aviation hub, has been demonstrating our strengths and advantages to the international aviation sector. Through the inaugural flight of C919, we are establishing a closer connection between Hong Kong and the Mainland. In fact, Hong Kong is the first city beyond other Mainland cities to have this kind of commercial flight. So we are especially happy to see this flight materialised on the first day of 2025.
We hope that through this commercial flight, we can bring this historic innovation breakthrough in the Mainland's production of civil aviation aircraft to our Hong Kong citizens, as well as to the international visitors coming to Hong Kong. We do hope that through this inaugural flight, we can innovate and establish ourselves in civil aviation, so as to demonstrate our position under "one country, two systems" and our advantage of facilitating the Mainland achievements toflourish with Hong Kong's position. Thank you.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
