The Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) at north Lantau, which opened for commercial operations in 1998, is a vital component of Hong Kong’s economy, serving both tourism and commerce. Its strategic position in Asia has made it an important regional trans-shipment centre, passenger hub and gateway to other Chinese cities.

Civil Aviation Department is committed to a safe, efficient and sustainable air transport system. Statistics show that in Year 2014, from Jan to Oct, that there were already 323,778 aircraft movements, 52,209,223 passenger movements and 3,567,752 tonnes of freight movements through our Airport. Every minutes there are over 60 aircrafts landing or departing at the runways and the demand has been increasing.

During our visit, Mr. Raymond Chan and Mr. Gene Kwok of Air Traffic Engineering Services Division had given us an overview on administration, runway and parking aprons, passenger facilities, air traffic control services, Replacement of Air Traffic Control System, Satellite-based Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) Systems, Collaborative Decision Making (CDM), Weather Services for Aviation, Rescue and Fire Fighting Services, Developments at the Airport, and Air Services. In designing the critical environment, Computational Fluid Dynamic Analysis was applied to predict the air conditioning system performance and thermal comfort of the room space; underfloor air conditioning system was adopted for energy efficient operations. Technical representatives of EMSD had also showed us the operations of the plant rooms and resiliency of major facilities.

The entire visit was very informative and interesting. We were all vowed!