Hong Kong’s fourth runway may have to be located in Shenzhen

Mike Rowse says more traffic can be accommodated only if the region’s airports work together to coordinate flows, as the cost of building another runway in Hong Kong after the third one would be too high

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Shenzhen’s Baoan airport. Could airports in the Pearl River Delta coordinate their services? Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 12:01pm, 24 Apr 2016Updated: 12:01pm, 24 Apr 2016

I may as well come straight out and say it: there is a fair chance Hong Kong airport’s fourth runway will have to be in Shenzhen.

A seminar organised by the Post earlier this month discussed all aspects of our existing two-runway airport at Chek Lap Kok. Several important conclusions were identified. No international business centre worthy of the name can survive, let alone flourish, without a modern airport with extensive connectivity to the rest of the world. Such a facility is a significant employer in its own right, and is critical to development in the rest of the economy. There is a long lead time in planning and constructing new runways, let alone new airports. Hong Kong airport is essentially at full capacity and slots are already having to be rationed. The third runway is urgently needed and there is no time to be lost in its provision. Even with this extra runway, the airport will be at full capacity soon after its scheduled opening in 2023 and a fourth runway will be needed by 2030.

What third runway? Hong Kong needs another airport

But where will it be? This was the last question posed by a member of the audience at the seminar and it was not really answered, other than by a desperate plea by our de facto home carrier that it be somewhere “in Hong Kong”. In fairness to our government, the minister concerned, Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, has already recognised the issue and announced three years ago that the Airport Authority would commence a study on a fourth runway.

There is not enough room at the Chek Lap Kok airport on Lantau to accommodate a fourth runway. Photo: Felix Wong

Red flag raised over marine safety after Hong Kong’s third runway is built

Obviously, the most desirable location would be alongside the new third runway, construction of which is due to start shortly. But there is not enough room there to accommodate one to permit independent operation without straying into mainland waters and also causing unacceptable interference with major shipping channels. There may even be infringement of the proposed new dolphin sanctuary, which was itself a condition of environmental approval for the third runway. These obstacles, taken together, are enough to veto that choice. It would be impossible to justify the enormous expenditure required for infrastructure which did not meet International Civil Aviation Organisation safety standards.