The recovery plan for handling air cargo at the new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok is on target as latest figures show that daily volumes of cargo handled were in excess of 4,000 tonnes.

On Thursday (July 30), more than 4,098 tonnes of cargo were processed. This represented 84 per cent of the daily average volume handled in 1997. Wednesday's volume totalled 4,085 tonnes.

The main operator at the airport, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. (HACTL), is now handling about 75 per cent of the total volume, while Asia Airfreight Terminal (AAT) and others process the remainder.

Mr. Donald Tong, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) Government, said the Government and the Airport Authority will continue to give every assistance to HACTL so that full recovery of air cargo services could be achieved by end of August.

"I must say that the latest indications are rather encouraging. Yesterday (Hong Kong time) they accelerated their plan by starting to process all inbound cargo, which was one day ahead of schedule," Mr. Tong noted.

On passenger service, the waiting time for baggage was also slashed by a few minutes. The average waiting time yesterday was 12 minutes. During the same period, some 89,000 passengers passed through the airport.

For further information, please contact Chief Information Officer, Frank Chuan at (416) 924-5544.