Travellers' Checks | When Air France lowered Europe-Hong Kong flying time to six days

Air France was established 85 years ago this month, on October 7, 1933, and some five years later, on August 10, 1938, the carrier’s first flight to Hong Kong arrived. The 12-seater, three-engine Dewoitine D.338 – registra­tion number F-AQBF – had taken off from the French port of Marseilles on August 4, and reached Hong Kong via North Africa, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and French Indochina, the penultimate stop being Hanoi, which was already served by Air France.

The arrival made front-page news in Hong Kong, and a special event was held at Kai Tak airport, where several speeches were given. The French consul general noted that the Dewoitine, “which inaugurates so brilliantly the service between Hong Kong and Europe and which will reduce to six days the distance separating us from Paris and London”, was “certainly the largest and most powerful aeroplane to land at Hong Kong”.

Air France’s agent in Hong Kong was equally upbeat about the future of Kai Tak, suggesting it was “already becoming the first airport of the Far East and in the near future will be one of the leading airports in the world”.

On the flight over from Hanoi, the aircrew had spotted a Japanese aircraft carrier about 50km from Hong Kong and changed course to avoid it. Two years later, with Japanese forces threatening French Indochina, Air France suspended all flights to Hong Kong. The following month, one of its Dewoitine D.338s was shot down by a Japanese fighter aircraft as it approached Fort-Bayard, in the French enclave of Guangzhouwan, on the south China coast.