Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) welcomed the recommendation made by the Advisory Council on the Environment (ACE) to endorse the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report for expanding Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) into a three-runway system (3RS) with conditions.
“This is a key milestone in the development of the 3RS project,” said C K Ng, acting chief executive officer of AA. “It’s also an important step for maintaining Hong Kong’s overall competitiveness, by allowing our airport to meet its long-term aviation demand while generating local employment.”
Ng said AA will carefully study the conditions and recommendations made by the ACE in its endorsement of the EIA report. Meanwhile, AA will also strive to complete the other planning works related to the 3RS.
“If everything goes well, AA is targeted to obtain the support and approval from the Government to begin construction as soon as possible, with an aim for the 3RS to be fully operational by 2023,” Ng added.
Strong traffic at HKIA in August
At the same time, HKIA said it continues to see gains in its cargo throughput with a “remarkable growth” of 8.8 percent to 366,000 tonnes in August year-over-year.
The growth was driven mainly by transshipments, which were up 22 percent from a year ago. During the month, cargo throughput to and from Southeast Asia and mainland China improved most significantly compared to other key regions.
Over the first eight months of this year, HKIA handled 2.8 million tonnes of cargo, registering a growth of 6.9 percent year-over-year.
On a 12-month rolling basis, cargo volume increased by 5.7 percent to 4.3 million tonnes.
Cathay volumes inflate
Similarly, Cathay Pacific Airways said combined Cathay Pacific and Dragonair traffic figures for August showed a year-over-year increase in cargo and mail shipments.
The two airlines carried 146,955 tonnes of cargo and mail last month, an increase of 19.7 percent compared to August 2013. The cargo and mail load factor rose by 3.8 percentage points to 62.5 percent. Capacity, measured in available cargo/mail tonne kilometers, rose by 13.3 percent, while cargo and mail revenue tonne kilometers (RTKs) flown were up by 20.6 percent.
For the year to the end of August, tonnage rose by 11.3 percent, while capacity was up by 11.4 percent and RTKs increased by 14.3 percent.
Cathay Pacific general manager of cargo sales and marketing Mark Sutch said: “Demand out of Hong Kong and the key manufacturing regions in mainland China remained strong and we hope to see a further uptick in September as new consumer IT products are launched in the market.”
He added that the Americas remain the key focus of the company’s cargo business: “We will extend our presence further with a new freighter service to Calgary and increased frequencies to Columbus in October, and more flights to Mexico from November.”
Photo: Shenghung Lin
