HONG KONG LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 31 October 1990 30
boy passenger and aircraft movements had grown by 12%. If double-digit growth continues, capacity at Kai Tak will be reached as early as 1993.
There has been some misunderstanding as to what that will mean. It will not mean that an aircraft will be landing and taking off every minute of all the hours of operation of the airport. It means that the time-slots remaining for scheduling aircraft will be so unattractive to commercial airlines that they will be either unable or unwilling to expand their services to meet demand. They will then turn to other airports which can offer more attractive time slots that would enable them to make optimum use of their aircraft and provide a better interface with their route network. Thus when Kai Tak reaches capacity we would lose potentially new passenger traffic and experience growth only in charter flights and cargo operators willing to use non social time slots. The impact on our economy would be considerable.
Most experts agree that the Asia Pacific Region will experience higher levels of growth in air traffic than anywhere else in the world in the coming decade. Our neighbours and competitors are well aware of this; the second terminal at Changi airport in Singapore is about to open next month and the authorities are already planning for a third one, a new airport is under construction at Osaka, a massive new international airport on an even larger scale than Chek Lap Kok is being planned to serve Seoul, extensive expansion of Bangkok airport is being planned and a second passenger terminal is to be completed in Jakarta by 1991.
We cannot afford to leave Kai Tak congested and operating at its ultimate capacity, because of the importance of an efficient airport to our economy. In 1989, 730 000 tonnes of air cargo passed through Kai Tak; that made up just under 30% of our domestic exports, 20% of our imports and over 16% of our re-exports by value. About 85% of our tourists arrive by air. In 1989, receipts from tourism amounted to nearly $37 billion, an increase of 11% over 1988. We are the most popular tourist destination in Asia. The investment made by the hotel sector alone in this field is huge, with an additional 3 000 hotel rooms provided in 1989, and a further 6 500 rooms expected by the end of 1992. More difficult to quantify are the benefits derived from the ease with which businessmen can come and go. There is no doubt however that a constrained airport would severely limit our economic growth and make Hong Kong increasingly less attractive as a major centre for trade, finance and commerce.
I should now like to refer to suggestions that new airports in Macau and Shenzhen will somehow mean that we will not need Chek Lap Kok as urgently as we claim. Dealing first with Macau, we do not see how Macau will, in the long term, draw away any significant traffic from Hong Kong. It will have a separate complementary role in the region of serving Macau and its adjacent Pearl River Delta hinterland. It cannot possibly be expected to attract traffic in any significant volume from an aviation hub the size of Hong Kong, with the convenience it offers in providing connections to a vast network of regional and
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