Papers presented by John Wong since 2019

2022 Mexico City

"Rewiring the Skyways in Southeast Asia: How Geopolitics Fuelled the Growth of Commercial Aviation from the Perspective of Cold War Hong Kong"

Abstract:

As East and Southeast Asia became engulfed in the Cold War, contending powers vied for territorial and aerial control. Geopolitical factors redirected the development of air routes, producing a corridor that ran on the periphery of mainland China, connecting with long-haul traffic from North America and Europe. From the vantage point of Hong Kong, this configuration encompassed South Korea and Japan to the north, Taiwan and the Philippines to the east, as well as urban hubs in what came to be known as Southeast Asia. Alongside the intensifying penetration of the region by European and US-based monoliths, regional airlines sprang forth and populated the route map in the region. The development of Hong Kong and other emerging economies into hubs of commercial aviation reoriented maritime Nanyang and refashioned the region into an aerially connected network, fueling the business growth of burgeoning local carriers. The region thus formulated also served as a platform for economic and cultural exchange, generating for Hong Kong both a catchment area of commercial aviation as well as a pool of rival airlines, especially among the industrializing Little Dragons. This process took shape in the proliferation of flight routes, the construction of airport infrastructure, and the commercial organization of the airline industry at competing locations. Examining the technical and geopolitical challenges that Hong Kong and its flag carrier Cathay Pacific faced, this paper reveals the process by which long-haul operators yielded regional traffic to budding local airlines. The resulting circuity reinforced the connections between Hong Kong and the Chinese diaspora in Nanyang, rewiring Hong Kong and certain former maritime hubs into the formation of Southeast Asia before their forays into global systems.

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