Hong Kong airport must meet the challenges of regional competition
- With consultation and coordination, its operations and role and those of the Greater Bay Area’s other airports can be better defined. But to keep its position as an aviation hub, Hong Kong needs to maintain a competitive edge
Rapid development in the “Greater Bay Area” means there has to be a constant upgrading of infrastructure. The central government’s approval of expansion plans that include a third runway for Shenzhen’s airport should therefore not come as a surprise.
But for Hong Kong, also working on increasing its airport capacity and counting on being the region’s aviation hub for international travel, such competition could be perceived as unwelcome. It should not be viewed in such a way; instead, there should be coordination and cooperation with the goal of regional benefit.
Hong Kong’s international airport has been so dominant for so long that the idea of competition is inconceivable to some citizens. Latest rankings place it as the eighth busiest in the world for passenger volume and first for cargo, and the British consultancy Skytrax put it fifth in its annual “world’s best” list.
But Guangzhou’s Baiyan International Airport has been fast rising in passenger numbers and is now the 13th busiest internationally; a new terminal was opened last year and expansion plans call for two runways to be added to the existing three.
To learn that just 39km (24 miles) away in Shenzhen, Bao’an International Airport has similar ideas is disconcerting. That is especially so given that Beijing’s Greater Bay Area blueprint to link Hong Kong, Macau and nine Guangdong cities to create an economic powerhouse envisages Hong Kong being the region’s international aviation hub.
Such efforts are already advanced, with a third runway and associated facilities under construction at the airport at a cost of US$18 billion and scheduled for completion in 2024.
They will enable the boosting of annual passenger numbers by 30 million from the present 74.7 million. Shenzhen’s new runway, to be completed in 2030, would enable the airport to handle 80 million passengers a year, up from the present 49 million. Guangzhou has 69 million and the figure is expected to increase dramatically as planned international flights are added.
The competition for passengers and routes is fierce and the more the traffic, the greater the strains on flight paths and air space.
Being named a planned hub does not necessarily mean advantages and the disappearing of challenges; each airport has every right to expand and thrive, so aviation authorities will have to work more closely and there may even be a need for a regional coordinating body to integrate and consolidate resources.
Hong Kong’s airport has more international routes, higher standards, and better facilities and management. With consultation and coordination, its operations and role and those of the bay area’s other airports can be better defined. But to keep its position, it needs to maintain a competitive edge.
