Financial Secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen yesterday declared the possibility of Chek Lap Kok being named Deng Xiaoping airport as 'very good indeed'.
Mr Tsang spoke after stepping from the first plane to land at the new airport. A Government Flying Service twin-engine Super King Air aircraft made the historic touchdown at 12.45 pm.
Mr Tsang did not elaborate but the case for naming the $156 billion airport after the patriarch may be symbolically strengthened by the announcement of his death which came the same day as the maiden flight.
An Airport Authority official last night said Chek Lap Kok would be officially named by the SAR government when the airport opens next April.
The Financial Secretary, who was joined for the inaugural flight by five other officials including Airport Authority chairman Dr Wong Po-yan and Director of Civil Aviation Richard Siegel, said the touchdown was an 'exceedingly moving' occasion.
He said: 'We took off from one commercial airport in Hong Kong and landed on another commercial airport also in Hong Kong. I think this is a first.