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The acting Postmaster General, Mr P C Luk, announced today (Wednesday) that a set of special stamps on the theme of the "Hong Kong Airport" will be issued on July 5 (Sunday). The stamps were designed by Mr Bon Kwan and printed in lithography stochastic by Bundes Druckerei of Germany.

This set of special stamps depicts some of the key facilities and services supporting airport operations. They are:

Denomination Theme

$1.30 Passenger Terminal's 2.5 Kilometres of

Travelators

$1.60 Automated People Mover

$2.50 Tsing Ma Bridge and Airport Railway

$2.60 Passenger Terminal Building and the New

Airmail Centre

$3.10 Passenger Terminal's Frontal Aircraft

Gates

$5 Departure Level of the Passenger Terminal

There will be a special stamp sheet each containing four sets of stamps in setenant format to facilitate sticking onto first day covers. A stamp sheetlet incorporating the $5 stamp will also be issued.

In addition, a $5 stamp sheetlet to commemorate the closure of the Kai Tak Airport will also be issued on July 5. This stamp sheetlet was designed by Mr Arde Lam and printed in photogravure by Joh Enschede of the Netherlands.

As from June 1, the stamps and related stamp products will be on display for the advance information of the public at the General Post Office, Tsim Sha Tsui Post Office, Tsuen Wan Post Office and Sha Tin Central Post Office. Official first day covers for "Hong Kong Airport" issue and souvenir covers for "Closure of Kai Tak Airport, Hong Kong" will be put on sale at all post offices at $1 each on the same day.

A beautifully designed presentation pack containing the six stamps will be available for sale at $25 each at all post offices as from July 5. A set of six postage prepaid picture cards on "Hong Kong Airport" which are prepaid in airmail postage, will also be available for sale on the same day at $30 per set.

Serviced first day covers affixed with a full set of stamps cancelled with the special postmark will be put on sale at $19.60 each at the 26 philatelic offices on July 5.

Advance orders for stamps and related stamp products will be accepted at all post offices from June 1 to 8 . No handling fee is charged. There is no limit on the order quantity but it must be in multiples of five and the minimum is either five sets of stamps, five stamp sheetlets, five serviced first day covers, five sets of postage prepaid picture cards or five presentation packs.

The order will be available for customers' collection as from July 27 at the post office where the order is placed. From this issue onwards, Local Standing Order customers may collect their orders on the second working day after issue as an improvement of our service. Therefore, these customers may collect their orders for this issue as from July 7.

A restriction of 10 sheets of stamps of each denomination (viz. 250 sets of stamps), 10 setenant sheets (viz. 40 sets of stamps), 20 stamp sheetlets of each kind, 5 serviced first day covers, 5 sets of postage prepaid picture cards and 5 presentation packs

per customer queuing will be imposed on the first day of issue on July 5 and on subsequent days until stock lasts.

Hand-back service will be provided at all post offices to official and privately-made covers bearing indication of the first day of issue on July 5. Two special postmarks will also be introduced for the two events. The GPO-1 hand stamp will also be available for hand-back service at all 26 philatelic offices.

All post offices will be opened on July 5 and the opening hours will be from 8 am to 4 pm. However, counter services provided will be restricted to sale of the new stamps and acceptance of registered mails only.

End/ Wednesday, May 27, 1998

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