A Feasibility Study Is Underway

The Hong Kong Airport Authority expects "exponential growth" in mainland air traffic. With that assumption, they've begun a feasibility study into building a third runway.

In a statement that would warm the cockles of any capitalist's heart, the authority's outgoing chief executive, David Pang Ding-jung, said if a third runway was ever built it would be very costly.

Pang, in a luncheon speech for the American Chamber of Commerce Wednesday, emphasized Hong Kong's status as an aviation hub saying the third runway was necessary to ensure it remains that way.

As reported in The Standard, China's business newspaper, Pang said, "We've to look at the Hong Kong airport as part of China's airport system. We need more runways. We already have two runways and would like to maximize their use. Then, we may need a third runway."

The construction project would entail dredging mud from the sea floor of the proposed site, a deep channel adjacent the airport.

The concept for a third runway came after the authority announced a $580 million expansion plan to be phased in over the next 5 years. The project will equip Hong Kong International Airport with a new concourse, more bridge-linked stands for aircraft, additional taxiways, wider taxiway shoulders for the A380 and repaved runways.

Hong Kong airport saw nearly 41 million passengers last year, up almost 10 percent from 2004.

Airport expansion and talk of a new runway comes from official estimates that the current number of runways on mainland China will grow from 142 to 186 by 2010, and to 220 by 2020 with Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou becoming the country's global hubs.

Pang says in mainland China the average number of flights per person per year is 0.067 compared to 2 in the US. If the mainland market is ever to reach US proportions, growth will be exponential for business carriers, air carriers and airports.

"We must establish a domestic network, and connect that complicated domestic network with the international network. We can then attract enough people to come through Hong Kong," he said, adding that if the mainland followed the US model, a quarter of the passengers would be served by budget carriers.

FMI: www.hongkongairport.com