Number of rooms for smokers by boarding gates to be cut
Smoking rooms in all restaurants at Hong Kong's airport will be closed when a law curbing smoking takes effect on January 1. The move is at the initiative of the Airport Authority, not a requirement under the law.
Managers also plan to reduce the number of standalone smoking rooms at the Chek Lap Kok facility from 12 to 10.
The move comes less than two weeks after Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok shocked the public health sector by announcing that the government would study the feasibility of introducing smoking rooms across Hong Kong.
Critics said the Airport Authority's measures were not strong enough. Anti-smoking activists welcomed the move as a step in the right direction, but urged the airport to fall in line with the blanket ban on smoking in indoor public places to take effect on January 1.
An airport authority spokeswoman said: 'There are three restaurants in the passenger terminal building that have a smoking room. Effective from next year, no smoking areas will be allowed in restaurants at the airport.' The three restaurants are Champions Bar and Wildfire, located in the passenger terminal's East Hall extension, and Katie O'Connor's in the arrivals hall.
