Airport Authority's meagre profit a laughing stock

While Hong Kong's Airport Authority directors are jumping with joy at the HK$1.9 billion 'profit' they made in the last financial year, the city's business tycoons must also be jumping up and down - laughing at them.

In the real business world, the entire boards of companies would be replaced if they reported such a meagre profit - from gross revenue of almost HK$8 billion - on such a massive infrastructure built at a cost of HK$36 billion to taxpayers.

Hong Kong International Airport is a monopoly. Its charges are among the highest in the world to airlines and passengers. But growth in passenger and traffic has little to do with the efforts of its 11,000 staff. The traffic came with the growth in the Pearl River Delta region.

The unsung heroes of the success story of the airport are the diligent workers of the Civil Aviation Department. Working with government staffing constraints, they have still coped with all the pressures of the airport's huge growth.

Yet the authority, which has continued with its uncontrolled staff growth, is complaining about them not being able to increase flight movements to more than 54 an hour.

Having 50 years' exclusive use of Chek Lap Kok, the authority has ventured into everything other than running an airport.