COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
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expansion of existing terminal facilities for the processing of passengers and cargo have had to be postponed or re-phased. This means that during busy peak periods the airport caters for some 1,000 passengers an hour in excess of the present designed capacity. However, it is hoped that it will prove possible, by diverting funds from other projects, to improve this situation in the not too distant future. Despite the financial restrictions it has still been possible during recent months to complete two extra piers running alongside the terminal airside frontage, three transfer vehicle docks, and four airbridges serving two nose-in parking bays for Boeing 747 aircraft. The existing passenger terminal provides a full range of services for passengers, visitors and well-wishers alike-bars, restaurants, shopping arcades, banking and money changing services, all are available. Duty-free shops are also established for the convenience of passengers. These facilities are supplied by private concerns operat- ing under a franchise from the government-the resulting income contributes substantially to the economic viability of the airport.
During the year an extension to the runway promontory was completed and brought into operation. This has been a massive development project necessitating dredging more than two million cubic yards of mud from the sea bed in water 60 feet to 80 feet deep and subsequent filling with almost eight million cubic yards of rock, stones and earth prior to work starting on paving the runway and taxiway surfaces. A further 2,780 feet has how been added to the 200 feet wide runway making a total paved surface length of 11,130 feet. Associated with this extension a new instrument landing system has been commissioned for use by aircraft landing from the sea. Traffic approaching in the opposite direction is now able to make use of a new and unique instrument guidance system. Other developments completed during the year were a new airport sub-fire station and an additional taxiway serving the main aircraft parking aprons.
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The Civil Aviation Department is also responsible for the provision of air traffic control and search and rescue facilities for all aircraft operating in the Hong Kong Flight Information Region, an area of some 100,000 square miles over the South China Sea. Radio navigational and approach aids meet the most stringent internationally agreed standards and are supplemented and updated as required. In addition to the instrument landing and guidance systems, these aids include three surveillance radars, one precision approach radar, three VORS (VHF omni range beacons), three DMES (distance measuring equipment), and non-directional beacons. A sophisticated computer-controlled secondary surveillance radar system is expected to come into operation during 1975.
Civil aviation, even with today's international problems of oil and finance, is a dynamic and demanding industry. Hong Kong International Airport is continually being developed and improved, but the fact remains that there is little or no space for expansion and it appears inevitable that the industry demand will outstrip the capability of the airport to provide an efficient service. Accordingly, and bearing in mind the serious effect this would have on Hong Kong's economy, the government in 1973 commissioned a long-term planning study to determine which courses of action are available to forestall this situation. This study has recently been completed and is now being considered by the authorities.