ENG-2014 — Page 280

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Transport

support the department's own port operations or serve other departments that do not have their own fleets. In 2014, the Marine Department also had 26 vessels, including conveyance launches and tugboats, provided under contracts by private operators.

Government Dockyard

The Government Dockyard, managed by the Government Fleet Division, designs, procures and maintains all government vessels. It occupies a site of 9.8 hectares on Stonecutters Island and has a sheltered water basin of 8.3 hectares as one of the Marine Department's operational bases. For repair and maintenance of vessels, the dockyard has four movable canopies, 10 covered docking and repair sheds and 30 open-yard docking cradle spaces, supported by a ship-lift system and three ship-hoists capable of dry docking vessels of up to 750 tonnes.

In 2014, 45 new craft, costing $14.89 million, were built for the government and 14 new craft building contracts, worth $14.78 million, were awarded to shipbuilders in Hong Kong. The total expenditure in maintaining the Government Dockyard systems and government fleet was close to $465 million.

Air Transport

Hong Kong is a major international and regional aviation centre. At year-end, there were more than 100 airlines providing about 7,400 weekly scheduled services between Hong Kong and about 180 destinations worldwide.

Hong Kong International Airport

In 2014, 63.3 million passengers passed through Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), a rise of 5.7 per cent over 2013, the airport handled 4.38 million tonnes of cargo, a rise of 6 per cent over 2013, and there were about over 390,955 flights to and from Hong Kong, a rise of 5.1 per cent over 2013.

The airport continues to provide extensive land and sea connections to the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. In 2014, there were about 89 daily ferry trips between SkyPier and Guangzhou's Nansha, Shenzhen's Shekou and Fuyong, Dongguan's Humen, Zhongshan, Zhuhai's Jiuzhou and Macao's Maritime Ferry Terminal and Taipa. With 550 daily scheduled coach trips, passengers enjoy convenient services between the airport and about 110 PRD cities and towns. The number of cross-boundary limousines serving Mainland cities and towns daily reached 280 in 2014.

Airport Services

Plans to increase aircraft parking stands in the medium term are under way. The 28 stands provided in the west apron expansion projects were completed in 2014. For the midfield development, the midfield concourse topping-out ceremony was held in November 2014 and 20 stands are targeted for completion in 2015. More stands are being planned in the remaining midfield to meet future needs.

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