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He stressed that the additional capacity will also help to build up a stronger traffic base to transfer to the new airport at Chek Lap Kok.
"Any measures to increase the number of flight movements in the early morning and late evening will, unfortunately, cause additional noise disturbance to those living in the vicinity of the airport," he said.
The spokesman said the department accepted that the potential economic benefits must be weighed against the environmental implications of increases in the airport's operating capacity.
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) has completed a noise impact assessment and the noise impact of flight movements at the airport can be categorised into two types namely: noise annoyance and wake-up-from-sleep.
On the "noise annoyance" aspect, the proposals will increase the number of people affected by 18 per cent from 330,000 to 388,000 because of an enlarged Noise Exposure Factor which is a number to measure the duration of flyovers, maximum noise levels, tonal characteristics and the number of movements in respect of residential developments in the vicinity of the airport.
If the proposals are implemented, 250,000 people in Sham Shui Po and Kowloon City will be affected at "wake-up-from-sleep" noise level 11 times after 9 pm each day because of the landings as compared to seven times currently. At present, one or two landings per night occur after 10.30 pm.
The EPD assessment estimated that 10 per cent of the landings reach a "shocking" noise level of over 105 dB(A) in the worst area of Kowloon City.
As to take-offs after 9 pm, 90,000 people in Kowloon City, Kwun Tong and Eastern would be affected 27 times as compared to 21 times currently.
The spokesman said the additional noise nuisance would however be for a limited and finite period until the opening of the new airport.
He said the department would be taking measures to minimise the noise nuisance as far as possible by for instance not scheduling aircraft arrivals after 10.30
m. He said in fact this was the case since October this year.
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