by Katerina Kerr
*Proposal will be airports costliest infrastructure project ever.
Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has unveiled a 20-year development masterplan, which includes the construction of a third runway to increase capacity.
If approved, the proposal will be the costliest infrastructure project the airport has undergone.
A three-month public consultation period will be launched from 3 June to collect feedback on the plans, which outlines two development options.
The first option is for maintaining the existing two-runway system. However, HKIA said this option can only meet the estimated air traffic demand in the medium term, and it will reach its maximum runway capacity sometime around 2020.
The second option is to build a new runway to increase capacity, which it said would “enable HKIA to meet the city’s air traffic demand up to and possibly beyond 2030”.
The third runway option would be built on reclaimed land and is estimated to cost approximately HK$86.2 billion (US$11bn) and would meet forecast annual cargo throughput of about 8.9 million tonnes by 2030.
Cathay Pacific Airways has given its “full and unequivocal” backing for the building of a third runway at the airport, stating it was “the only effective way to address the airport’s capacity constraints and ensure the long-term competitiveness of the Hong Kong hub.”
John Slosar, the airline’s CEO, said: “We believe the third runway is of critical importance to the sustainability of the Hong Kong economy and, therefore, to the long-term prosperity and well-being of Hong Kong people.
“We believe the need for it is urgent and becoming increasingly so. Connectivity with the rest of the world has made Hong Kong what it is today so we must be clear on how we can maintain and grow these linkages for tomorrow.”
Slosar said that HKIA is “a victim of its own success” and that its two runways face traffic saturation 15-20 years before the original blueprint forecast of 2040.
“The airport already faces a fundamental challenge regarding runway capacity. The existing runways are already so heavily used through most of the operating day that finding take off and landing slots for additional flights is increasingly difficult.”
Cathay Pacific believes that a third runway is the only viable way to ensure the long-term competitiveness of Hong Kong as an important international hub.
However, environmentalists oppose the plan for a new runway as land reclamation will endanger habitats and the busier maritime traffic due to the reduction of open water will increase the threat to rare species even higher.