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A three-day Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Transportation Working Group Symposium on the Promotion of Effective 100 per cent Baggage Screening hosted by the Civil Aviation Department in Hong Kong ended today (August 28).
On the first day of the Symposium (August 26), Mr Albert Lam, Director-General of Civil Aviation delivered the keynote speech. He said that air traffic in the Asia Pacific Region had regained its momentum in the past two years after the introduction of additional security measures both on the ground and in flight.
According to statistics of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), 532 million people travelled by air on international scheduled services in 2001. The International Air Transport Association forecasts show that the number of international passengers will grow to 656 million by 2006 and 800 million by 2011 respectively, with China being the market that has ample room for growth.
Traffic within the APEC member economies formed a significant part in the global volume. For example, the traffic within Asia and between Asia and North America accounted for 11.8 per cent and 5.2 per cent of the total respectively.
"Airlines have placed high accord to safety and security in travel, so do the passengers when they choose which airlines to fly with. Screening of hold baggage is one of the important security control measures in ensuring that no restricted articles that are used for unlawful interference are carried on board," Mr Lam said.
"Hong Kong has been applying 100 per cent screening of baggage since our operations at the old airport at Kai Tak. This practice is continued to be applied when we relocated to the new airport. The modus operandi was modified and more sophisticated equipment were deployed. In 2002, the Hong Kong International Airport handled 16.7 million departing and transfer passengers and screened more than 19 million pieces of baggage, or over 52,000 pieces a day. Full screening of baggage will no doubt give the travelling public additional confidence in the security and safety of travel.
"Looking ahead we are facing the challenge from growing number of travellers who bring with them increasing number of baggage in various sizes that we have to screen. These passengers also demand for better facilitation, which puts pressure on the airports and airlines to process and screen their baggage faster. The introduction of very large aircraft such as the Airbus A380 which can carry more than 550 passengers also poses further challenges as to how to complete the screening of the passengers' baggage to cope with the requirement for speedy embarkation of passengers. I believe that the discussions can generate invaluable benefits to the industry and the travelling public," Mr Lam noted.
The objective of the Symposium is to allow member economies to share knowledge and experience. During the Symposium, security experts introduced state-of-the-art technology and equipment in screening, requirements in human resources in respect of recruitment, training and quality control in operations of equipment, and the design of airport to cater for the various modes of operations in screening.
Over a hundred representatives from 13 member economies including the United States attended the Symposium.
End/Thursday, August 28, 2003
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