Mainland airlines to gain in deal with Hong Kong The carriers will be given more rights to fly to foreign cities from Chek Lap Kok.

(From South China Morning Post)

Byline: Joseph Lo

A new air services arrangement giving mainland carriers unprecedented rights to fly to foreign cities from Chek Lap Kok could be unveiled as early as this week.

This comes after eight months of hard negotiation between the Hong Kong government and its Beijing counterparts.

Local negotiators are understood to have agreed to open the door for mainland airlines to operate more international services from Hong Kong after getting assurances from the central government that an open skies arrangement for local carriers to fly to the mainland will be put in place after 2006.

The Hong Kong …