Two departments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government are playing a crucial role in improving the speedy clearance of passengers and cargo at the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok.

The Immigration Department and the Customs and Excise Departments are daily clearing about 90,000 passengers and their baggage, except those stopped for a secondary inspection, through the airport within 15 minutes of their arrival.

Armed with state-of-the-art computer system, the customs officers at the airport are also clearing cargo arrivals rapidly. And records show that the services are better than at the old airport.

Previously, it was practically impossible to clear the cargo manifest of a flight prior to its arrival, and it took about 45 minutes to clear the manifest upon landing.

At the new airport, the customs officers are now able to clear manifests of about 25 per cent of incoming flights before landing, and to send customs clearance instructions to the majority of the remaining flights within 20 minutes after receiving and verifying a cargo manifest.

"This goes to show that the SAR Government, with the co-operation of all parties concerned, will provide assistance in every possible way to achieve normal operations and service at the airport as quickly as possible," said Mr. Donald Tong, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of the SAR Government in Canada.

Mr. Tong explained that the significant improvement in cargo clearance has been made possible through an electronic linkup between the Customs and Excise Department and the six air cargo operators at the airport. Figures show that 90 per cent of air cargo is being cleared within 20 minutes upon request, compared to within 60 minutes at the old airport.

In the past week, almost 70 per cent of flights have left on time or within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure, while about 83 per cent have left within 30 minutes.

Cargo throughput is also improving - from 2,700 tonnes a day on July 14 to 4,700 tonnes on August 2.

The average daily throughput from July 14 to August 2 was 3,535 tonnes compared to the 1997 daily average of 4,892 tonnes at Kai Tak.

For further information please contact Chief Information Officer, Mr. Frank Chuan at telephone no. (416) 924-5544.