ENG-2019 — Page 274

14.

Transport

10 covered docking sheds, four movable canopies, 30 open-yard docking cradle spaces, a shiplift system and three ship-hoists capable of dry-docking vessels of up to 750 tonnes.

During the year, 66 new craft costing $165 million were built for the government. Fourteen new craft building contracts, worth $174 million, were awarded to shipbuilders. The expenditure in maintaining the Government Dockyard facilities and government fleet was close to $644 million.

Air Transport

Hong Kong is a major international and regional aviation centre. At the year end, more than 120 airlines were providing over 1,100 flights daily between Hong Kong and over 220 destinations worldwide.

Hong Kong International Airport

In 2019, the airport handled 71.5 million passengers, a decrease of 4.2 per cent over 2018; 4.8 million tonnes of cargo including airmail, down 6.1 per cent; and 419,795 incoming and outgoing flights, down 1.9 per cent.

The airport provides extensive intermodal connections to the PRD region by land and sea. During the year, the SkyPier recorded about 80 daily ferry trips with Guangzhou's Nansha and Lianhuashan, Shenzhen's Shekou and Fuyong, Dongguan's Humen, Zhongshan, Zhuhai's Jiuzhou and Macao's Maritime Ferry Terminal and Taipa. Another 550 daily coach trips took passengers between the airport and about 110 PRD cities and towns, while cross-boundary limousines operated around 500 trips every day.

Airport Services

The Airport Authority carries out facility enhancement and expansion projects to cope with increasing air traffic demand in the medium term under the two-runway system. The Midfield Concourse serves over one million passengers each month. The development of the remaining Midfield will be completed in phases by 2020. The Terminal 1 extension went into operation in November 2019 to provide additional passenger handling capacity.

Apart from infrastructure, the Airport Authority deploys automation and mobile technologies, such as e-Security Gates equipped with biometric technology at the security checkpoints of the airport's departure hall and smart check-in kiosks at off-site locations.

Future Development

To maintain Hong Kong's competitiveness as a global and regional aviation hub, the Airport Authority is undertaking a Three-Runway System project. This comprises the formation of some 650 hectares of land north of the existing airport island by reclamation, and the construction of the third runway, taxiways and aprons, the Third Runway Passenger Building, a new automated people mover system, a new high-speed baggage handling system, an expanded Terminal 2 and associated support infrastructure.

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