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Following is a question by the Hon Hui Cheung-ching and a written reply by the acting Secretary for Economic Services, Ms Miranda Chiu, in the Legislative Council today (May 8):

Question:

The Hong Kong Airport Authority (AA) has reportedly stated that in the year 2000, 430 000 passenger trips were made by Hong Kong citizens travelling to and from other Mainland cities via the Shenzhen Airport, and it has estimated that the figure would rise to one million this year. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

(a) it knows the respective annual growth in the number of passenger trips made by Hong Kong citizens who have turned to using the airports in the Pearl River Delta region to fly to Mainland and overseas cities, since the commissioning of the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA); and whether it has projected the growth in the next three years;

(b) it has assessed the economic loss suffered and to be suffered by the AA each year since the commissioning of HKIA and over the next three years as a result of Hong Kong citizens turning to using the airports in the Pearl River Delta region; and

(c) measures were adopted in the past two years to attract Hong Kong citizens to use HKIA; if so, of the effectiveness of the measures; and whether it will consider implementing more measures to further attract the citizens to use the airport; if it will, of the details?

Reply:

Madam President,

The airports in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region include the Guangzhou Airport, the Zhuhai Airport, the Macau International Airport and the Shenzhen Airport. As far as the Guangzhou Airport is concerned, owing to its relatively long distance from Hong Kong, the Airport Authority (AA) estimates that the utilisation rate of this airport by Hong Kong residents would be very low. The Zhuhai Airport and the Macau International Airport have low passenger throughput (0.64 million and 3.81 million respectively in 2001) and relatively few destinations and flights. As such, AA also estimates that the utilisation rates of these two airports by Hong Kong residents would be quite low.

As there are more connecting flights from the Shenzhen Airport to other mainland cities, there has been a significant increase in the number of Hong Kong residents using the Shenzhen Airport for travelling to other mainland cities in recent years. AA does not have the relevant statistics for the years before 2000, but based on the information obtained from the travel industry, it estimates that in 2000 and 2001, there were about 0.34 million and 0.43 million Hong Kong residents respectively flying to other mainland cities from the Shenzhen Airport. The economic impact on AA as a result of Hong Kong passengers using the Shenzhen Airport is mainly the revenue forgone in respect of terminal building charge (per departing passenger), landing and parking charges, which are roughly estimated to be $19 million and $25 million in 2000 and 2001 respectively.

AA forecasts that if the present situation and development trends of the airports concerned remain unchanged, the total number of Hong Kong residents using the Shenzhen Airport may reach 2 million over the next three years. In face of the new competitive environment, AA has been formulating measures to enhance the attractiveness of the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) to both Hong Kong and PRD residents. In fact, owing to the HKIA's world-class facilities and its extensive international aviation network to some 90 cities, many residents of the PRD region have been attracted to use the HKIA in their travel. In 2001, there were 0.6 million such residents travelling to and from overseas via the HKIA, generating revenue of about $35 million for AA.

Over the past two years, AA has implemented a series of improvements to both the hardware and software facilities of the HKIA, such as enhancing the passenger terminal facilities (a completely new customer service centre and hi-tech multi-media information booths were commissioned in January 2002) and providing more diversified services for visitors (allocating additional space at the departure check-in level for travel agencies to set up information counters and extending the opening hours of some shops and restaurants during the Chinese New Year holidays). AA will continue to implement such improvement measures so as to maintain the leading position of the HKIA.

In addition, AA is actively pursuing measures to enhance the HKIA's transport connectivity with the PRD region, such as conducting studies to develop air-sea multi-modal ferry passenger services. AA is also exploring opportunities for cooperation with nearby airports with a view to enabling each airport to develop its own strengths in order to achieve a win-win situation. However, the Airport Authority Ordinance (the Ordinance) currently restricts AA's activities largely to the airport island. In order to implement any cooperation project with other airports, it is necessary for the Chief Executive to make an order under Section 5(3) of the Ordinance, which has to be tabled before the Legislative Council for negative vetting, to permit the AA to undertake certain airport-related activities outside the airport island.

End/Wednesday, May 8, 2002

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