THE Provisional Airport Authority (PAA) and international airlines will start negotiation next year on aircraft landing fees at the new airport at Chek Lap Kok. PAA chief executive, Dr Hank Townsend, promised the fees would be 'reasonable' and not as high as those at Japan's new Kansai airport. 'They [fees] will be under serious consultation about a year before the airport opens, but informal negotiations will start next year when we sit down with the airlines,' he said at an international airport conference yesterday. He is confident Hong Kong would remain 'the dominant centre for international traffic' even though new or expanding airports at Shenzhen, Macau, Zhuhai and Guangzhou would handle 46 million passengers a year by 2010. An even more optimistic view was held by John Meredity, executive director of the Air Transport Action Group, who said the Asia-Pacific region would handle 51 per cent of the world's air traffic by 2010. 'Asia-Pacific will contribute US$900 million (about HK$7 billion) in economic output and create 15 million jobs,' he said. 'But this cannot be achieved without proper infrastructure,' he said. Part of this includes the development of a satellite-based aircraft navigation system which will come into service in the south Pacific next year. But Mr Meredity, who represents a lobby group of airlines and aircraft manufacturers, said it also includes a second runway at Chek Lap Kok and the expansion of other airports throughout Asia. 'Fifity per cent of all Asia-Pacific airports will be capacity limited by 1995,' which he said was a critical year for air transport. He said US President Bill Clinton had offered to host a meeting next year of Asia's transport ministers to co-ordinate the development of air travel in the region.
