THE overnight curfew at Kai Tak is to be strictly enforced over the next six to eight months - allowing residents near the airport to sleep easier - as a new high-speed exit off the single runway is constructed.
Airlines serving the overflowing airport were recently told of the tougher deadlines, which came into effect at 12.01 am yesterday .
Planes are officially banned from departing after midnight, but technical problems or other factors behind delayed flights have seen the Civil Aviation Department allowing an average of five a week to go out after the curfew.
It has informed the airlines that only in the most extreme cases will flights be allowed out because of the tight time frame the contractor is under to complete the project.
The exit was approved by the Legislative Council late last year in order to clear the runway faster.
Tougher deadlines for passengers to report at check-in counters and boarding gates have also been imposed in a bid by some US airlines to cut delays caused by heightened security checks.
The measures - imposed last month because of possible bomb threats, and which include physical cabin searches and body searches of all passengers on departing flights - have caused flight delays of up to three hours to the four United States-based airlines and the two other Asian carriers affected.