Flight delays grow longer as airport handles more traffic

Hong Kong International Airport may be among the most efficient airports in the world, but with levels of air traffic reaching new highs every year passengers are also enduring longer delays.

Civil Aviation Department figures show that 24 per cent of incoming flights had delays of more than 15 minutes last year, compared to 20 per cent in 2008. Some 21 per cent of outgoing flights were delayed more than 15 minutes, from 18 per cent in 2008.

A senior department official said the figures still compared favourably with many airports in major European and American cities.

Last year, flights arriving at Chek Lap Kok were an average of 23 minutes late, while outgoing flights were 17 minutes late, despite measures adopted by the department to improve traffic. The average delay on all flights was up seven minutes in the past three years.

'Delays are caused by a lot of reasons - bad weather, airspace restrictions, aircraft performance and turnaround time, parking bays... delays in one airport or problems with one aircraft could lead to a chain of effects that delay another aircraft in another airport,' the official said.

In the 12 months to February, the airport handled 51.4 million passengers and 4.1 million tonnes of cargo - an increase of 10.1 per cent and 18.6 per cent over the same period last year. Aircraft movements grew by 11.8 per cent to reach 312,530.