Hong Kong aviation chief defends new air traffic system as airport resumes full flight schedule
Between October 30 and November 26, about 90 flights a day were cut to accommodate switch to Auto Trac III
The head of the Civil Aviation Department has again defended the integrity and safety of the new air traffic control system at Hong Kong International airport, which will resume normal scheduling on Sunday after a month-long reduction in flights to accommodate the switch.
But Director-General of Civil Aviation Simon Li Tin-chui believes the system, which the department has admitted to have seen more frequent technical glitches since it went live about two weeks ago, will require another six to 12 months to “fine tune and optimise”.
Pilot-turned-lawmaker Jeremy Tam Man-ho revealed last week that at least six flights had temporarily gone missing from the radar since the system began full operation, with one disappearing off the screen for two minutes soon after take-off.
The department had earlier admitted only that the disappearance lasted for about 12 seconds.
When asked about the two-minute error on a television talk show on Sunday, Li said “it should not have happened” and added that the hiccup could have been caused by “bad radar signals”.
Li said: “The problems we encountered over the past two weeks were not related to the system. [It was caused by] external radar signals which had to be input into the system ... those were not good signals, so the system could not process them.