ENG-2000 — Page 320

TRANSPORT

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introduced scheduled passenger services between Bangkok and Hong Kong in July; Ansett International Limited of Australia commenced scheduled passenger services between Melbourne and Hong Kong in October; and Philippine Airlines began scheduled passenger services between Subic Bay and Hong Kong in November and between Laoag and Hong Kong in December. As a result of these changes, the number of scheduled airlines serving Hong Kong has increased to 64. At the end of 2000, these airlines together operated about 1 750 direct round-trip scheduled services weekly between Hong Kong and about 130 cities world-wide. In addition, an average of about 50 non-scheduled services were operated to and from Hong Kong each week.

Air Traffic Control

To support the dual-runway operations while maintaining a high level of safety, a Precision Runway Monitor (PRM) was installed at the HKIA and commissioned in February, making the HKIA one of the few airports in the world equipped with this state-of-the-art equipment. By using the data provided by the PRM, air traffic controllers are able to provide timely information to aircraft approaching and departing the runways, thus ensuring flight safety and providing scope for increasing the runway capacity.

Upon completion of familiarisation training of air traffic control (ATC) staff, the Backup Air Traffic Control Centre/Tower was commissioned in April. To ensure the readiness of the facilities, drills were conducted regularly.

The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) has taken a number of measures to improve the provision of ATC services. These include enhancing the training of air traffic controllers, streamlining ATC operational procedures, stepping up staff supervision and upgrading the ATC systems to provide better conflict alert functions.

Three experts from the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority (UKCAA) were invited by the CAD to review the ATC system in Hong Kong from December 4 to 8. The CAD believed it was opportune that a review be undertaken to ensure that Hong Kong is well prepared for the challenges brought about by the anticipated air traffic growth in the foreseeable future. During their stay in Hong Kong, the experts reviewed the management and organisation of the CAD's Air Traffic Management Division, the ATC incidents investigation procedures, the ATC staff training and operations. They concluded that the ATC operation in Hong Kong was safe and of a high standard. Nevertheless, the CAD will take improvement measures to further enhance operational safety.

To ensure the provision of efficient ATC services in the Pearl River Delta area, the department continued to maintain close liaison with the civil aviation authorities of the Mainland and Macau. In 2000, a series of tripartite meetings on ATC operations was held to refine the flight procedures for airports in the area, including Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Macau, and to enhance ATC co-ordination arrangements among these airports.

The CAD plans to convert the current ground-based ATC systems to satellite-based Communications, Navigation and Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) systems by around 2016. Given the scale and complexities of the CNS/ATM systems, the work will be implemented in three phases as follows:

Study Phase-Systems Study and Analysis (1999-2004)