HK's new airport scheduled to open by next April

HONG KONG (JP): If everything goes according to plan, Hong Kong will have a new, ultramodern, US$9.1 billion airport in Chek Lap Kok by April.

The airport, which was a sticking point between Britain and China during the negotiations for last June's handover, is to replace the aging Kai Tak Airport.

Much of the work on the new airport, including one of its two runways, a giant $1.3 billion terminal and several other operational and commercial projects, is in its final stages.

An extensive road and railway network linking the airport to the heart of Hong Kong, some 34 kilometers away, have been completed and the new highways, tunnels and suspension bridges are open to the public.

The official date for the airport's opening has not been announced.

"A series of landing trials will be carried out later this year, prior to the official opening," Rossana, an airport PR officer, said.

The new airport, which will be open 24 hours a day, is designed to provide passengers, their friends and relatives waiting at the airport and members of the aviation industry with maximum comfort and convenience.

It will also provide greater opportunities for Hong Kong to compete with other airports in the region and become "the gateway to Asia", Nick Rhodes, Cathay Pacific's general manager of airline services, told a group of visiting Indonesian journalists.

Kai Tak Airport, which serves 29.5 million passengers a year, is too congested and cannot cope with the booming travel industry.

"This new airport is three times larger than Kai Tak," Rhodes said.

Airport Authority Hong Kong said the new airport would have a capacity to serve some 35 million passengers in its opening year and 40.7 million after the completion of its second runway by the end of next year.

Its annual air cargo capacity is expected to be three million tons, eventually increasing to nine million tons.

The first of its two runways will have 65 aircraft parking spaces, allowing the airport to handle up to 40 aircraft movements an hour.

The Y-shaped passenger terminal, stretching more than one- kilometer, will have its own train service and 48 moving walkways. Kai Tak Airport has none.

The terminal will also have 120 shops and restaurants.

A total of 224 immigration counters will be set up to speed up service.

"The new airport is being built to meet the aviation demands of Hong Kong, southern China and the broader Asia-Pacific region for at least the next 50 years," the authority said.

International Air Transport Association predicts that passenger traffic in Asia will increase two-fold from 135 million trips in 1995, to about 400 million in 2010.

The region's airlines are expected to spend US$340 billion to double their fleets in the next 20 years.

"That, to me, means we are at the heart of a growing business and it is the responsibility of the Airport Authority Hong Kong to build an airport that has the capacity and the facilities to meet the demands presented by these forecasts," Henry Townsend, the authority's chief executive officer, said.

Formerly a flat, dusty area with steep green hills on Lantau Island, Chek Lap Kok extends over an area of 1,248 hectares, half of which were reclaimed from the sea.

Some 19,600 workers from different nationalities are currently working around-the-clock on the project.

The airport is part of the territory's 10 ambitious projects worth US$20 billion in its so-called Airport Core Program (ACP), dubbed the largest single infrastructure project in the world.

The other nine projects include the construction of extensive road and railway facilities, the development of a new town near the airport and reclamation work in western Kowloon and the southern part of Hong Kong to accommodate the world-class airport.

On Feb. 19, the 4.2-kilometer, six-lane West Kowloon Expressway connecting the new airport to Hong Kong's business center was officially opened to the public.

On April 27, former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher led the opening ceremonies for the Lantau Link, which traverses the 2.2-kilometer Tsing Ma Bridge, billed as the world's longest suspension bridge for road and railway traffic.

Three days later, the Western Harbor Crossing tunnel was opened to link Hong Kong to the West Kowloon Expressway.

The other five projects, including the first phase of Tung Chung New Town, which will be able to accommodate some 20,000 residents, have also been completed.

The last of the 10 projects, the airport railway, is to be launched in June, or two months after the airport is opened.

Once the Airport Express line opens, the 34-kilometer trip from the city to the new airport will take only 23 minutes. The new highways will enable cars to make the journey in about 35 minutes.

And passengers need not worry about luggage because there will be two check-in counters, one at the train station in Hong Kong and another in Kowloon, to process luggage and boarding passes.

With some six months to go before the official opening, the Hong Kong authority has yet to decide on a name for the airport.

Some local businesspeople prefer Deng Xiaoping, after the late paramount Chinese leader, rather than Chek Lap Kok because it is difficult to pronounce. (bsr)