The construction of Cathay Pacific Airways' wholly owned cargo terminal has resumed after a two-year suspension and it is scheduled to open in early 2013.
The facility, with a designed capacity of 2.6 million tonnes a year, will be expanded in a second phase of construction as the carrier is banking on a strong recovery in the cargo market. The new phase will boost its handling capacity by 53 per cent to 4 million tonnes a year.
After the ground-breaking ceremony in the summer of 2008, the project was postponed when the global financial crisis erupted later in the year. Hong Kong International Airport, the world's busiest in terms of international cargo, aims to handle eight million tonnes of cargo by 2025, compared with 3.35 million tonnes last year. The first phase of the cargo terminal built by Cathay Pacific, the third one at the airport, could increase the cargo handling capacity at Chek Lap Kok by 50 per cent to 7.4 million tonnes a year.
Cathay was confident of the long-term growth of thecargo business in Hong Kong as the mainland's imports and hi-tech exports went through Hong Kong, Rupert Hogg, director of cargo at Cathay, said yesterday. He shrugged off suggestions that growth in the second half would be down significantly from the first half because of the bond crisis in the euro zone. 'This year will be a good one in the cargo business,' he said.
The terminal, spanning 10 hectares, had already reserved more space for expansion, said a management spokesperson for Cathay Pacific Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of the airline that is operating the new cargo terminal. 'We will study the expansion plan once the cargo terminal opens in 2013.'
The new, HK$5.5 billion cargo terminal will have a gross floor area of 240,000 square metres. The facility will be equipped with the most advanced mechanical handling system provided by Siemens and can claim to be the world's most efficient cargo facility in terms of land use.