Third runway takes priority over train depot, says Airport Authority chairman Marvin Cheung

The proposed third runway should take priority over commercial development at the airport, Airport Authority chairman Marvin Cheung Kin-tung said in his first media interview since a split emerged in the authority's board over plans for a key development site.

The board voted unanimously last week in favour of building a train depot on the site of a temporary golf course, a location some board members had wanted to use purely for a shopping and hotel development. Board member Vincent Lo Hong-sui had threatened to quit the board over the issue but changed his stance after learning that moving the railway depot would delay the third runway by a year.

"According to the Airport Authority Ordinance, the first [purpose] of the authority is to develop the airport. The provision of other facilities is secondary. This says building the airport should always be our main task," Cheung told the South China Morning Post.

He said Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying had been kept informed about the authority's discussions. Lo is a Leung supporter.

The row broke out in November when Lo tendered his resignation as chairman of the authority's infrastructural planning committee after the authority's management insisted the depot for the driverless electric train that will service the new runway should be located under the commercial development. Lo argued that the depot would reduce by billions of dollars the value of the 120,000 square metre site between Terminal Two and the AsiaWorld-Expo complex.

The authority said moving the depot closer to the new runway would delay the environmental impact assessment on the controversial runway plan, which is being fought by environmentalists who claim reclamation work will destroy the habitat of the rare Chinese white dolphin.

Watch: Hong Kong's Chinese white dolphins and the airport