Singapore, Dec 08: Singapore airlines said today it will protest a British government decision to allow its Hong Kong rival Cathay Pacific Airways to fly across the Atlantic. Cathay was granted rights last week to fly between London's Heathrow airport and New York -- one of the world's busiest and most lucrative long-haul routes. Singapore airlines called the decision unfair. Its spokesman Innes Willox confirmed that the carrier -- the world's second biggest by market capitalisation -- planned to complain to British transport secretary Alistair Darling. "Out of Singapore, UK carriers enjoy unlimited freedom. But we, out of Heathrow are restricted," Singapore airlines chief executive Chew Choon Seng was quoted by a popular newspaper of London. British and Hong Kong authorities made the deal to give Cathay trans-atlantic rights in return for allowing Richard Branson's Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. To pick up passengers in Hong Kong en route to Sydney in Australia. Singapore airlines owns a 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic. Bureau Report