Private jet operators are warning that Hong Kong will lose out to Shenzhen if it ignores the acute shortage of aircraft parking space at Chek Lap Kok.
The number of business jets registered in the city has surged to 50 from two since 1998 when the airport's Business Aviation Centre (BAC), catering to mainland firms and wealthy clients, opened.
But the BAC has not expanded as rapidly, forcing customers to park their planes at a remote area.
'Sometimes we have to park our clients' jets on the tarmac between the two runways at the far end of the airport island,' said Wyn Li, director of marketing and client relations for Metrojet, one of Asia's largest private jet operators. It takes several hours to tow aircraft back to BAC for take-off, according to Li.
Business Aviation Asia (BAA), a Shenzhen-based business jet operator, recently struggled to find a bay at the city's airport to change an aircraft engine's waste oil. The overhaul, which usually takes eight hours, took three days to complete and made the owner very frustrated, said Jeffrey Lowe, a former director of sales and marketing at BAA.
'If Hong Kong continues not to address the [lack of] space issue, it is quite logical for the owners to look for alternative airports in the Pearl River Delta,' Lowe said.