Earlier this month, a construction launch ceremony for the three-runway system of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) was held by the Hong Kong Airport Authority (AA). This is a symbolic event: The third runway project has now formally begun its construction process after a lot of controversy. However, there are still people arguing over whether the third runway should be built at all.
Back in March, the High Court refused to grant leave for a judicial review challenging the AA's power to charge passengers to build the third runway. According to the High Court judge, the AA has the power to determine the level of the fees. The legislature has empowered it to do so. The authority can do anything necessary to develop the HKIA. This includes building an extra runway. In other words, the three-runway system has been tested and verified by public consultation, by the Environmental Protection Department, by the Legislative Council and by judicial reviews. Therefore, it is not necessary to query its legitimacy further.
In June this year, the AA announced that a new passenger fee will be introduced, as the third runway's construction is being launched, to fund the ongoing expansion of the HKIA.
Generally speaking, there are not many objections to the proposed fee. This indicates that this kind of finance and the level of charges is acceptable and understandable for most citizens and tourists.
The truth is that construction of the third runway cannot wait any longer. The current double-runway system of HKIA has almost reached saturation status. Without upgrading the system, it's hardly possible for our airport to deal with the future demands of increasing numbers of travelers. According to the latest statistics revealed by the AA, the traffic volume of HKIA for the 12 months to June - at around 70 million people - grew by over 6 percent year on year. As for aircraft movement, there were 411,150 take-offs and landings of airplanes, 2.9 percent more than the figure from 2014 to 2015. The air-freight quantity was 4.4 million metric tons - the largest volume of all the airports in the world.
At the moment, during peak hours the aircraft movement of HKIA is 66 planes per hour, which is extremely close to its upper limit of 68. The third runway is now being constructed, but we should never forget that it takes at least 8 years, in an ideal situation, to finish such a project. During the construction process before 2024, the HKIA will have to face the problem of insufficient capacity for quite a while. Therefore, the project is not even an undertaking of necessity, but one of urgency.
In order to maintain the position of regional aviation hub, the significance of the three-runway system is obvious. Take a look at our neighbors, and we can see the rapid development of airports in the surrounding cities. So if we do not maintain our advantages by upgrading our facilities, the competitive power of HKIA will decline. The next thing will be that Hong Kong will lose a wealth of business opportunities. Therefore, it is rather pointless to continue to debate the necessity of the project.
Instead, we should make sure we have done our duty as citizens by carefully supervising the project. It is more constructive to work toward ensuring environmental protection, the quality of construction, transparency of the project's finances and other things.
In the 1970s when Hong Kong was planning the construction of MTR, there were people who spoke out against it. But if we look at the MTR project now, the system serves millions of Hong Kong residents and tourists every day. It is unlikely anyone would still regard the MTR as unnecessary. People nowadays only complain about the lack of subways in areas they live in. I believe this is also the case with the three-runway system, which will prove itself by generating a great amount of economic benefits in future.
