Bisignani pleads for third Hong Kong runway

Bisignani pleads for third Hong Kong runway    The International Air Transport Association on Wednesday called on Hong Kong authorities to move forward with plans for a third runway at Hong Kong International Airport.
   'Hong Kong outperforms its population size on the world stage because of its connectivity,' said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's director general and chief executive officer, in an address to the Aerospace Forum Asia in Hong Kong. 'To protect the airport's competitiveness, sufficient capacity is needed to support growth. The current two runways are near saturation. I am here to make a strong plea to move forward with a third runway,'
   Hong Kong International Airport was planned in 1992 to handle 87 million passengers and 9 million tons of cargo, but growth has been faster than anyone could have predicted, IATA said.

Bisignani

   'The phenomenal growth of air transport in Hong Kong has outpaced all projections taken in the early '90s,' Bisignani said. 'If Hong Kong wants to continue to gain the economic benefits of a growing aviation industry a third runway will be needed. You may disagree if it will be needed in 2015 or 2020, or some other date. But it will be needed and the time to start planning is now.'
   Bisignani also said that air traffic management in the Pearl River Delta region is among the top three global air traffic control problems in the world along with those in Europe and the United States.
   'Incremental progress is being made,' he said. 'In 2009, new arrival routes shortened each flight from the mainland of China, Europe and Southeast Asia by 210 kilometers. Last year, 10 conditional routes on the mainland side helped with further savings. The challenge is to keep pace with the industry's growth.
   'Airspace is a finite resource from which we are working together to squeeze even more efficiency. The key will be in releasing more military airspace for civilian use. Our successes over the last decade have built the trust that can guide to a comprehensive solution that meets the needs of the airlines, travelers and the military. IATA is here to help.'
   IATA projects Chinese international air cargo to grow from 2.1 million tons in 2009 to 3.8 million tons in 2014. That 11.7 percent average annual growth would be the second-fastest in the world and would rank China as the world's fifth-largest market for international cargo. Hong Kong's air cargo business is expected to grow from 3 million tons of cargo in 2009 to 5.3 million tons by 2014 — 12.2 percent average annual growth that would make Hong Kong the world's second-largest international air cargo hub in 2014.