********************************
Following is a question by the Hon Howard Young and a reply by the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Ms Eva Cheng, at the Legislative Council meeting today (April 30):
Question:
It has been reported that during the Easter holidays this year, the daily flight movements at the Hong Kong International Airport reached a record of 906 and 945 on March 20 and 21 respectively, which far exceeded the daily average of 810 movements. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the extra resources (including manpower) allocated by the authorities to handle the extra flight movements during the above long holidays;
(b) whether the authorities will consider maintaining the above high record of daily flight movements on an ongoing basis, instead of following the plan announced in May 2007 to increase the runway capacity gradually to 58 movements per hour by 2009 and then to 68 movements per hour by 2015; if they will, of the details of their plan to maintain the record; if they will not, the relevant constraints; and
(c) given that in the discussion paper for the meeting of the Council's Panel on Economic Development on March 17, 2008, the authorities have indicated that they are working out the required additional manpower resources to implement the recommendations of the consultancy study on Hong Kong airspace and runway capacity on further enhancing the runway capacity, what considerations the authorities will take into account in working out the manpower requirements, and when a detailed proposal will be submitted to the relevant committees of the Council for consideration?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) The Air Traffic Management Division (ATMD) of the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) is responsible for providing air traffic control (ATC), flight information and other related services within the Hong Kong Flight Information Region on a 24-hour basis. On a normal day, between 7.45am and 10pm during which the great majority (about 80%) of total daily movements take place, 103 ATC staff members are required to work in two shifts to ensure the safe and orderly flow of air traffic. On March 20 and 21, 2008, whether Easter traffic peaked, an average of about 6% extra manpower was provided each day between 7.45am and 10 pm to cater for the increase in flight movements. The extra manpower was made available through various temporary measures, such as curtailment of leave for staff, ad hoc extension of duty time and reduction of training activities, which are not sustainable in the long run.
(b) The high movement records during the Easter holidays were achieved through temporary redeployment of extra manpower to reinforce the ATC operations. With the existing manpower resources in the ATMD, CAD cannot maintain such high movement levels on an on-going basis. However, it is worth noting that the additional flights during the Easter holidays mainly made use of unutilised runway slots during non-peak hours (e.g., between 9am and 10am and between 8pm and 12 midnight). When demand warrants, CAD will continue to flexibly deploy its manpower resources to cater for the additional flights as far as possible.
The Financial Secretary announced in the 2008-09 Budget Speech the proposal to increase runway capacity to 58movements per hour by 2009 and then gradually to 68 movements per hour by 2015. The Administration sees little room for expediting the plan taking into account the time required to introduce a wide range of improvement measures, such as the adoption of a more systemised and standardised approach in the ATC operations, re-sectorisation of airspace, establishment of a new ATC position to enhance the existing local flow control arrangement, improvement in flight operational practices etc. Also, all concerned parties will need to be properly trained and get familiarised with the new procedures. CAD will also need to conduct detailed assessments to confirm the safety aspects of the new measures. With the commissioning of the new ATC Centre by end 2012, we anticipate that the enhanced functional features and improved system capacity of the new ATC system will allow room for further increasing the runway capacity.
(c) The Administration reviews from time to time the manpower resources required to ensure safe, orderly and expeditious flow of air traffic in Hong Kong. To cater for the forecast growth in air traffic in the short to medium term, funding has been earmarked to create 32 Air Traffic Control Officer (ATCO) posts in the next five years. To achieve the target of 68 movements per hour by 2015,we envisage that CAD would need additional air traffic management posts. We are working out the required manpower resources, taking into account he growth in air traffic, flight movement patterns, the required improvement measures, the infrastructure development plan at the Hong Kong International Airport as well as the necessary manpower to implement the safety management procedures. The number of posts required will also need to take into account the five-year training required to turn a new recruit into a qualified ATCO, and CAD's training capacity which is constrained by the number of on-the-job training positions and qualified instructors available. We will seek the required resources through the established procedures within this financial year.
Ends/Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:31
NNNN
