Jardines wanted to develop a Hong Kong carrier with the support of an enterprise backed by the British government.

BOAC wanted to create a feeder carrier to transport passengers from their London to Hong Kong service to onward destinations in China and the Far East.

In May 1949, an agreement was signed by Cathay Pacific (Jock Swire) and BOAC (on behalf of Hong Kong Airways) along Governor Alexander Grantham's lines of route allocation to each party.

Cathay secured the valuable routes of Bangkok, Singapore, Haiphong, Saigon, Sandakan, Jesselton, Labuan, and Rangoon (with an extension possible to Calcutta).

[citation needed] Another Jardine affiliate, Eupo Air (歐亞) chartered seats for distribution primarily amongst the Chinese community on British Airways flights on the Hong Kong to London route from 1983 to 2002, a similar partnership to that of HKA and Northwest Airlines in the 1950s.