The Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government, Mr. Donald Tong, today (Monday) said a quantum leap in improvements has been made at the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok.

Since the opening on July 6, more than 2.2 million passengers passed through the airport, he said. The airport is now handling 480 flights and some 90,000 passengers a day.

He said other services related to the arrival and departure of aircrafts have also made tremendous improvements after earlier teething problems.

"Our latest figure shows that almost two thirds of all flights had left on time or within 15 minutes of schedule, and the average waiting time for baggage was 11 minutes, matching/surpassing the standards of Kai Tak Airport," Mr. Tong said, adding that continued efforts will be made by the Airport Authority to further improve the service.

Improvements have been made in other areas including flight information display, cleanliness of toilets, service hours of restaurants, problem telephones, signage, escalators etc.

Regarding the facilities for air cargo, Mr. Tong pointed out the main handler, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (HACTL), has also made considerable improvements. He said the SAR Government will also continue to provide every assistance to the company to reinstate normal cargo operations as soon as practicable.

HACTL processed a total of 1,894 tonnes of cargo on July 18, and 2,998 tonnes on the following day. These figures represent 48 per cent and 75 per cent respectively of the expected daily load of 4,000 tonnes.

By mid-August, 100% of both imports and exports will be processed using both the new airport and HACTL's facilities at Kai Tak (for ground handling of air cargo only). Full recovery of aircargo handling services at the new airport is expected by the end of August.

The cargo handling services provided by the other handler are operating smoothly. Contingency measures, including operation of temporary air cargo services at Huangtian Airport in Shenzhen and Macau Airport, are also put in place to meet Hong Kong's need for aircargo services.

"We are highly confident that the services at the new airport will continue to further improve rapidly, matching the local and international expectations of this state-of-the-art airport." Mr. Tong said.

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