XN000022-1995-04-19 — Page 19

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by encouraging airlines to deploy larger aircraft; and

by encouraging airlines to make use of unused runway capacity in the early morning.

As a result of these efforts, we expect Kai Tak to be able to handle an additional 98 movements per week by the end of 1995. Unfortunately, this is still not enough and we will still be turning away over 300 flights per week or approximately 2.5 million passengers a year.

The proposals contained in the Administration's consultation paper would, if implemented in full, make available an additional 224 slots per week. They would also help to achieve a better utilisation of some early morning slots by enabling more planes to arrive in the late evening, stay overnight in Hong Kong and depart early the next day.

However, as the Administration has freely acknowledged, the proposals in the consultation paper would create a degree of additional noise disturbance to residents living near the airport in the early morning and late evening hours, when the number of aircraft movements has traditionally been restricted for noise mitigation reasons.

Mr President, contrary to the assertions of some honourable Members who have spoken in support of the motion this evening, this discussion is not about whether economic considerations should prevail over environmental concerns. It is a question of finding the right point of balance between the two. It is also, in my view, quite wrong to depict the issue as one of big business interests versus the rights of the ordinary man in the street.

There is no one in this community who does not benefit, in some way, from the fact that Hong Kong is home to one of the most efficient and well-managed airports in the world. It is for this reason that the Government has continued to invest in the physical expansion of Kai Tak to invest in new state-of-the-art navigational and meteorological equipment and in the training of competent airport management and air traffic control staff in order to ensure that the airport functions at maximum efficiency.

Kai Tak is our gateway to the world. In 1994, Hong Kong people made more than 7.1 million air trips - to visit friends and relatives overseas, to travel on business, to go on holiday. Each week, 63 airlines provide about 3,000 regular flights to some 100 destinations world-wide. We take for granted the ability to be able to go out and make air reservations to almost any corner of the world, in the time it takes to tap a few keys on a computer terminal. The ease and efficiency of our air links both within the region and to the rest of the world is one of the reasons why so many major companies choose to base themselves in Hong Kong.