LCQ1: Aircraft landings or takeoffs not affected by API

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Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (October 16) :-

Question:

It has been reported that an Air Pollution Index ("API") reading of 185 was recorded on 9 September 2002 in Tung Chung where the airport is located, the highest since the respective readings of 174 and 181 were recorded in July and August this year. There have been allegations that the pollutants that caused the serious air pollution and a low visibility of less than one kilometre were from the Pearl River Delta or other areas of the Guangdong Province rather than from Tung Chung or other areas of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether flight landings or takeoffs were affected by the high API reading and low visibility on those days; if so, of the respective numbers of landings and takeoffs affected;

(b) of the progress in implementing the measures taken jointly with the Guangdong Provincial Government to tackle the air pollution; and

(a) Aircraft landings and takeoffs can be affected by a number of factors including weather condition, visibility, wind direction and wind speed as well as the standard of navigation aids available both on ground and in the aircraft. Visibility level is only one of the many factors. It is in turn also affected by factors such as meteorological condition, weather condition and air quality.

The Convention on International Civil Aviation sets down the visibility levels for landing by different types of aircraft. The minimum visibility level required for aircraft least equipped with navigation aids to land is 800 metres, which is below 1 kilometre. On 9 September 2002, when the Air Pollution Index (API) was 185 at Tung Chung as the Hon Howard Young stated in his question, the visibility level at the Hong Kong International Airport was actually consistently above 4.5 kilometres and no aircraft landings or takeoffs were affected by the API.

(b) Between 1999 and early 2002, the Hong Kong SAR Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government has jointly carried out a study to identify the major sources of air pollution in the Pearl River Delta and together we decided long-term measures to improve the regional air quality. On 29 April this year, the two Governments made a joint announcement on their consensus to make the best endeavour to reduce by 2010 the emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, respirable suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds by 40%, 20%, 55% and 55% respectively, using 1997 as the base year. The two Governments will consider in detail the enhanced control measures recommended in the study and, having regard to their feasibility, implement a series of additional measures with the objective of achieving the agreed emission reduction targets by 2010. The two Governments have set up an expert group under the Guangdong - Hong Kong Joint Working Group on Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection to take this forward.

(c) The work of this expert group has already started and it includes the assessment of changes to regional air quality and the effectiveness of additional improvement measures to be implemented. It is currently working on the setting up of an enhanced regional air quality monitoring network. The enhanced network is expected to become operational around 2004.

End/Wednesday, October 16, 2002

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