Forum held on maintaining HK's leading air cargo hub position

Some 250 industry experts and senior executives of the Airport Authority Hong Kong gather here Thursday to open the Air Cargo Forum 2006, outlining strategies for Hong Kong to maintain its leading air cargo hub position.

Following last year's inaugural forum, the event identified ways to sustain the premier hub position of the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) as a key supply chain integrator for the Chinese mainland.

"We will continue to enhance our multi-modal connectivity with the Chinese mainland and other parts of the world in order to seize the growth opportunities and strengthen our leading position in the region," said Hans Bakker, commercial director of the Airport Authority.

Bakker said Hong Kong remained the most competitive airport in China, ahead of Taipei and Shanghai, quoting a British industry magazine report.

During the past three years, the international air cargo market on the Chinese mainland has expanded at an annual growth rate of 16.7 percent while Hong Kong posted a 13 percent annual growth rate for the previous five years, according to the Airport Authority.

Bakker said the Airport Authority has to improve its airport cargo facilities and enhance the efficiency, service, standards and pricing of HKIA to support the robust growth.

The Airport Authority has planned to build new taxiways and 10 additional cargo stands, bringing its total cargo stands to 35 in 2007.

Despite tough competition within China, the HKIA's leading hub position was reaffirmed by two independent studies by GHK, a British consultancy company, after examining and comparing flight connectivity, reliability, service quality, customs efficiency, security and safety of airports in the region.

The two independent studies, which were released at the forum, focused on HKIA's competitiveness as an international air cargo center and its cargo handling tariff structure.

The tariff structure study concluded that compared with other airports in the region, HKIA is highly competitive when taking into accounts the total costs including surface transport cost, airport handling charges and air freight fares.

Source: Xinhua