direction using the airline's five DC-10-30 widebodies. In contrast to Skytrain, this was to feature a first class section called Pullman. It was to operate three flights per week each to Sydney and Melbourne respectively, and one to Perth. The CAA took a negative view of Laker's application for a UK–Australia scheduled low-fare service and a rival application by BCal to launch a conventional, scheduled service between Gatwick and four Australian destinations via Colombo at four flights a week each way. It considered Laker's market growth forecast overoptimistic, its stimulation factors unreal, and its fares intentions vague. In the CAA's opinion, the Australians were unlikely to accept another UK airline without a reciprocal service from a second Australian carrier, and the traffic on the UK–Australia route would not support two additional carriers without a substantial reduction in service frequencies of the incumbent operators. (The CAA told BCal that it considered its proposal for a new, faster service to Australia superior to Laker's, and that it would therefore look favourably on its application if it wished to re-apply with specific proposals for a joint Anglo-Australian operation.) Second designated UK carrier to Hong Kong The UK government decided in 1979 to open the route between London and Hong Kong to competition. This was to be by a second British scheduled carrier to ease the shortage of seats passengers were experiencing at peak times on the ten-times-a-week monopoly service by BA from Heathrow. A race ensued when BCal, Laker and Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's de facto "flag carrier", filed their applications with the CAA in London. Laker proposed a daily Skytrain linking Gatwick and Hong Kong via Sharjah to be operated with single-class, 380-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s. At the CAA hearing the airline proposed larger, higher capacity Boeing 747s as soon as this was justified by increased demand. The company tried to convince the CAA that its additional all-economy class discount service was the best option to alleviate the shortage of seats on this route. Its analysis showed the bottom end of the economy market was the most under-served segment because of the scarcity of low fares. The other airlines used Laker's analysis in support of their claims that Skytrain would flood the market with cheap seats that risked undermining profitability without doing anything to alleviate the shortage of premium seats. Laker retorted that low fares would stimulate the market by meeting untapped