Report pushes urgent need for third runway
Hong Kong urgently needs a third airport runway to stay ahead of competition in the region, says a think tank led by former government officials.
Chek Lap Kok would have to turn away flights by 2017 as it reached full capacity, handing business to fast-growing neighbours, said former Lands Department director Patrick Lau Lai-chui, convenor of the airport study group of the Hong Kong Ideas Centre.
The group released its report, Urgent Greenlight for Third Runway, yesterday for the Airport Authority to consider in its review of the need for another runway. Its review will be announced in a few weeks, followed by public consultation.
The two existing runways were now at 93 per cent of capacity and would reach 100 per cent by 2017 based on annual growth of 6.5 per cent and taking into account enhancement measures designed to increase capacity, Lau said.
As it took about 10 years to build a new runway, the airport would have to go through four years - 2017 to 2021 - of total capacity even if a new runway was approved next year, he said.
The airport was introducing measures to boost capacity, including easing flight procedures, hiring more air traffic controllers and renewing the air traffic control system, said former director general of civil aviation Albert Lam Kwong-yu, also a member of the study group.
Assuming that it operated for 18 hours a day - two more than now - and considering the above measures, it could handle 68 planes an hour by 2015, up from 59 now. That would mean pushing the maximum aircraft movements up from 27,200, in October, to an average of 37,233 a month in 2017, he said.
But these measures would not be able to cater to an estimated passenger and cargo traffic growth rate of 6.5 per cent, and the airport would be full by 2017, he said.
The city's airport was the world's busiest in terms of cargo throughput, and ranked third in international passenger traffic, Lau said, citing figures from the Airports Council International. But the city's edge over its neighbours would diminish as airports in Seoul, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Singapore and on the mainland all had expansion plans to cope with the rising demand, he said.
Lau said expanding the airport would create jobs, but he did not elaborate on environmental issues, saying only 'they will need to be addressed and can be addressed'.
Roy Tam Hoi-ping, of Green Sense, said the group opposed an extra runway because 'it can't be built without hurting the environment. Not to mention the area in question is home to a lot of dolphins'.
A third runway was likely to need reclamation north of Lantau, close to the Sha Chau and Lung Kwu Chau Marine Park, and would create noise for Tung Chung residents, he said.
Take notice
Chek Lap Kok may be left behind, a think tank report says. By 2020, Guangzhou will have this many runways: 5
