Looks like the world’s busiest Airport for cargo is about to receive approval to add a much needed 3rd runway to help with growing traffic and congestion. According to Airport Authority Hong Kong, who operates the airport, approval may be received as early as the first 1 quarter of 2012 to begin work on the USD $17 billion project.
Forecasts suggest the 13 year old airport will reach operational capacity by 2020, making the need for a 3rd runway a very necessary one.
After a few months of public hearings and debate it looks like the proposal should have little resistance in gaining government approval.
I was there recently on a mileage run and just based on my 48 hours in HKG, with only a few hours in the airport, it was obvious that the airport is already EXTREMELY busy. Airplanes were coming and going faster than I had ever seen at any other airport and this coming from someone who regularly transits Chicago and New York.
I’m sure that the busiest airline at Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific, is going to be pleased with the potential to expand operations as well!
I’m from Hk and I fully applaud the move …. The only way to keep the PEK-PVG-HKG triopoly intact and prevent CAN from taking over
but another problem is that HKG is entirely designed around widebody planes, which makes it very inefficient to allow LCCs