Hong Kong International Airport

Hong Kong International Airport
View of the Chek Lap Kok Airport from Tung Chung Bay (July 2009)
Chinese name	香港國際機場
Other name	Chek Lap Kok Airport 赤鱲角機場
Geographical information
Legislative Council District	New Territories West
Administrative district(s)	Islands District
Location	Chek Lap Kok
Major sub-areas	Terminal Building, Logistics Area
Transport information
Major transport terminus(i)	Franchised Buses: Ground Transportation Centre Non-franchised coaches: Car Park 1
Major road(s)	Chek Lap Kok South Road, Cheong Hong Road, Cheong Tat Road, Chun Wan Road etc
Expressway(s)	Airport Road
MTR station(s)	Airport Express Airport Station, AsiaWorld-Expo Station

The Hong Kong International Airport (香港國際機場, abbr. HKIA) is currently the only civil airport in Hong Kong. It is located in the Remaining Portion of Chek Lap Kok Lot No. 1 and the Additional Portion of Chek Lap Kok on the outlying islands, adjacent to Tung Chung New Town. The Airport Authority of Hong Kong (AA) is required to operate and develop HKIA in line with the objective of maintaining Hong Kong as an international and regional aviation centre.

In 2018, HKIA carried 74.7 million passengers and 5.12 million tonnes of cargo, making it the world's busiest international air cargo airport for the ninth consecutive year and the third busiest in the world in terms of international passenger traffic. HKIA has won numerous awards over the years and has been voted the world's best airport for seven years since 2001 by Skytrax Research, the UK-based airline industry survey organisation, and is currently ranked fifth.

Being far away from the urban area, HKIA relies heavily on franchised bus services to connect Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, and is far more important than the Airport Express, which is mainly used by inbound travellers. At present, the airport's franchised bus services are operated by Citybus, Long Win Bus and New Lantao Bus, with a total of more than half a hundred routes. As at June 2023, there are a total of 86 franchised bus routes, including 26 overnight routes, plying between the airport island and various districts in Hong Kong.

Background for the Hong Kong International Airport

Kai Tak Airport

Until the end of the 20th century, the civil airport in Hong Kong was the Hong Kong Kai Tak International Airport, which opened in 1927. Kai Tak Airport is located in the urban area of Kowloon, just one street away from the residential area of Kowloon City, and over the years, aircraft movements have caused great noise pollution to the residents. In conjunction with the noise control at the airport, flights are restricted in their take-off and landing times, making it impossible for the airport to operate 24 hours a day. Due to the single-runway system, the number of flight movements at Kai Tak Airport is limited to a certain extent, and a single runway 13/31 is simply unable to cope with the demand of passenger and cargo traffic at the same time.

Since the 1980s, Kai Tak Airport has reached its full capacity in terms of runway and apron usage. Even though the Civil Aviation Department (CAD) has been expanding the passenger terminal building, apron and runway facilities within its limited space, it has not been able to cope with the continuous high growth in passenger and cargo utilisation by the aviation industry in Hong Kong. Coupled with the unique geographical environment of Kai Tak Airport, which is surrounded by mountains on three sides and buildings all over the surrounding area, aircraft may not be able to take off at their maximum capacity, thus greatly restricting the development of Hong Kong's aviation industry, and this led to the emergence of voices in the community at that time calling for the construction of a new airport.

Brewing of the new airport plan

As a matter of fact, the Government has been identifying the best sites for the new airport since the early 1970's. In the Long Term Planning Study on Air Transport System conducted in 1973, 30 sites were initially examined, which were gradually narrowed down to six sites in the following order:

1. The Tolo Channel at the entrance to Tolo Harbour in the eastern part of the New Territories;
2. A reclamation area in the western part of Lamma Island;
3. A reclamation in the eastern part of Cheung Chau;
4. A reclamation at Nim Wan, Deep Bay, offshore and north of Black Point;
5. A reclamation near the border of the Shenzhen River Delta; and
6. Chek Lap Kok.

Finally, Chek Lap Kok was selected as the preferred site and a feasibility study was carried out in 1979, followed by a comprehensive masterplan study in 1982.

1997 Confidence Crisis

Hong Kong people have experienced the Chinese Civil War, the 1967 Riots and the Cold War. The mainstream ideology of the society has moved closer to the Western capitalist camp, and they have a fear of the Communist Party. During the Sino-British negotiations, a senior member of the Chinese government made a promise that "the horse will continue to run, the dance will continue to dance, and there will be no change for 50 years" (馬照跑、舞照跳，五十年不變), in an attempt to stabilise Hong Kong people's uneasiness about Hong Kong's future under a communist socialist regime, and in the latter part of the Sino-British negotiations in 1984, when the future of Hong Kong was still not yet clear, and the people of Hong Kong's confidence in the future was dim, the Jardine Matheson Group, one of the four major foreign banks with a history of 150 years, suddenly announced on March 28 that it had been forced by the Chinese government to take over the Jardine Matheson Group. On 28 March, Jardine Matheson, one of the four major foreign banks with a history of 150 years, suddenly announced its relocation to Bermuda. The news of Jardine Matheson's relocation shook Hong Kong, and the stock market crash on the following day triggered the "Hong Kong Confidence Crisis".

On 19 December 1984, the Chinese Premier and the British Prime Minister signed the Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong in Beijing, which came into effect on 27 May 1985 with the exchange of instruments of ratification between China and Britain. In the Joint Declaration, the Chinese Communist Party confirmed the resumption of the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong (including the permanently ceded Hong Kong Island and Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories Leased Territories) on 1 July 1997, and the British Government decided to return Hong Kong to China on 1 July 1997 as well.

Three years later, university students in Beijing, China, mourned the death of Hu Yaobang by staging a large-scale demonstration and rally to demand democratic reforms, anti-government and anti-corruption measures from the Chinese government. The demonstration lasted until the early hours of 4 June, when the PLA massacred the demonstrators and cleared the area, which became known as the "June Fourth Incident". The June 4 Incident has once again aroused public anxiety and fear of the Chinese Communist Party, which has led to a further deterioration in the confidence of Hong Kong people, many of whom have emigrated to other countries.

Hong Kong Airport Core Programme

In order to stabilise public confidence, the then Governor Sir David Wilson announced in his Policy Address on 11 October 1989 the launching of the Hong Kong Airport Core Programme (HKACP), which would see the construction of a new Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok. The project was also known as the "Rose Garden Project", as it was portrayed in a very rosy light by the government.

10 Core Projects

The Hong Kong Airport Core Programme (ACP) consists of "10 Core Projects" which, in addition to the construction of the new airport, include the following infrastructure:

1. Construction of Tung Chung New Town (Phase I) as a support town for the new airport;
2. Construction of the Airport Railway - Tung Chung Line and Airport Express, the world's first dedicated airport railway;
3. Construction of the North Lantau Highway linking the Lantau Link to the new airport;
4. Construction of the Lantau Link comprising the Tsing Ma Bridge, Kap Shui Mun Bridge and Ma Wan Viaduct;
5. Construction of the Tsing Yi Section and Kwai Chung Section of Route 3;
6. Construction of West Kowloon Highway connecting Tsing Kwai Highway and the Western Harbour Crossing Toll Plaza;
7. Construction of the Western Harbour Crossing, the third harbour crossing;
8. West Kowloon Reclamation Project, reclaiming 334 hectares of land between Yau Ma Tei and Lai Chi Kok;
9. Central Reclamation Phase I, reclaiming 20 hectares of land for the Hong Kong Station, Central Ferry Piers and Central Ferry Piers Bus Terminus.

In addition, the Ting Kau Bridge linking Northwest Tsing Yi to Ting Kau and the Tai Lam Tunnel (that is, the Tsing Long Highway) linking Kam Tin to Ting Kau in Northwest New Territories would be completed around the same time. These two infrastructures are not part of the Airport Core Programme (ACP) per se, but they are also major road links between the new airport and the Northwest New Territories, and can be regarded as part of the ACP, that is, Project 11.

Sino-British Disuptes

The entire Hong Kong Airport Core Programme (ACP) was originally estimated to cost more than HK$200 billion. This unusually large construction programme unilaterally proposed by the British Hong Kong authorities, which went beyond the handover of Hong Kong's sovereignty in 1997, alarmed the Chinese government, which was worried that the construction of the new airport would deplete Hong Kong's fiscal reserves and leave a huge amount of debt for the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. The Chinese and British governments held several rounds of talks to seek a consensus. In the end, both sides agreed to reduce the expenditure on the new airport project to HK$158.2 billion, to limit the debt of the HKSAR Government to HK$23 billion after 1997, and to leave the HKSAR Government with a reserve of not less than HK$25 billion, with many infrastructure projects having to be scaled down.

After a long period of dispute between the two countries, on 3 September 1991, the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, John Major, went to Beijing to sign the Memorandum of Understanding on the Construction of the New Airport of Hong Kong and Related Matters with the Premier Li Peng, and the "Hong Kong Airport Core Programme (ACP)", which was the largest and most expensive infrastructure project in the history of Hong Kong, was formally implemented.

Beginning of New Airport construction

To ensure that the ten projects were carried out in an orderly and synchronised manner, the Government set up two high-level bodies to deal with the ACP projects, namely the Airport Development Planning Committee (ADPC) and the New Airport Projects Co-ordination Office (NAPCO). The former was responsible for managing and overseeing the work of the ACP projects and was chaired by the then Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan, with the Financial Secretary, Secretary for Economic Services, Secretary for Works, Secretary for the Treasury, Secretary for Transport and Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands. Other members included the Financial Secretary, the Secretary for Economic Services, the Secretary for Works, the Secretary for the Treasury, the Secretary for Transport, and the Secretary for Planning, Environment and Lands; the latter was under the Works Bureau and was responsible for co-ordinating, executing and overseeing the projects.

Prior to the reclamation for the new airport, the Hong Kong Archaeological Society conducted archaeological work on Chek Lap Kok Island and removed the artefacts excavated for preservation, and the Tin Hau Temple on the island was dismantled and relocated to the Chek Lap Kok New Village in Tung Chung for redevelopment . As for the unique "Romer's Tree Frogs" inhabiting Chek Lap Kok, WWF-Hong Kong initiated a campaign in 1991-1992 and successfully rescued all the Romer's Tree Frogs, which were sent to the University of Hong Kong and the Melbourne Zoo for captive breeding. Finally, experts selected several receiving sites in Hong Kong to release the captive bred tree frogs into the wild.

The construction of the new airport began in 1992, with the Chek Lap Kok and Lam Chau islands first flattened and connected by reclamation to form a large piece of flat land, on which runways, aprons, passenger terminal and Logistics Area facilities were buil t and nine other infrastructure projects were carried out concurrently to shorten the construction period.[15] In June 1995, then-Financial Secretary Hamish MacLehose announced the construction of the new airport in the wake of an agreement reached by the British and Chinese Governments on the financing arrangements of the new airport and the airport railway. In June 1995, the then Financial Secretary, Sir Hamish Macleod, announced a target opening date of April 1998 after the two sides reached an agreement on the financing arrangements for the new airport and airport railway.

The new Hong Kong International Airport opens

The Passenger Terminal Building and the major buildings and facilities on the island have been completed after years of hard work by many labourers, day and night. From about mid-1997 onwards, the Airport Authority gave repeated assurances that by April 1998 the new airport would be ready.

On 13 January 1998, the HKSAR Government announced that the new airport would be named "Hong Kong International Airport". Taking into account the status of the construction of systems and facilities, the Airport Development Planning Committee decided in January that the new airport would open on 6 July, and on 2 July, the then President of China, Jiang Zemin, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Tung Chee-hwa, and other high-ranking officials of China and Hong Kong attended the opening ceremony of the Hong Kong International Airport.

At midnight on 6 July 1998, the last Cathay Pacific flight CX251 departed from Kai Tak Airport for London, UK, and at 01:16, the then Director of Civil Aviation, Richard Siegel, said "Goodbye Kai Tak, and thank you!" when closing the runway lights of Kai Tak Airport, marking the closure of Kai Tak Airport . The Airport relocation operation began at 17:30 and ended at 06:30 on the second day. That night there were 29 planes flew to the new airport, and all machinery equipment were transported to the new airport via ship or by road. The Cathay Pacific Flight CX889, which arrived from New York, USA, landed at the South Runway of the new airport at 06:27 that day (07L/25R), becoming the first arrival flight. The new airport, which spent 7 years of construction and a cost of 70.2 billion HKD, was put into service.

Even though four trial runs had been held since January, chaos broke out on the first day of the opening of the new airport . Chaos ensued as numerous problems arose in all operations at the airport. Flight information panels failed, making it impossible for passengers to locate departing flights, and the boarding bridges failed, leading to delays and cancellations of flights; the baggage handling system failed, leading to long waits for baggage, and even the loss of large amounts of baggage. In the Passenger Terminal Building, the air-conditioning was inadequate, the floor was too slippery and over-reflective, more than 200 public telephones were not connected, and there were no 24-hour restaurants. The SuperTerminal One was forced to suspend all cargo services due to the breakdown of the cargo handling system. As a result, the area bordering the apron and the Air Cargo Terminal was filled with a huge backlog of cargo, and it was even necessary to re-open the Cargo Terminal at the Kai Tak Airport. Taxis had to wait for hours to enter the taxi stand and could not leave in the middle of the journey, and there were no toilets in the taxi stand; the ticket issuing machines of the Airport Express were out of order, and there were delays in train services.

After almost two months of chaos, the airport gradually returned to normal . The Government set up a new Commission of Inquiry to find out the cause of the failure, determine who should be held responsible, and find ways to improve the situation , and released its report in January 1999. Surprisingly, no high-ranking government officials were held responsible for the incident . On the contrary, the Legislative Council's investigation report criticised 11 officials by name, the most notable of whom was the then Chief Secretary for Administration and Chairman of the Airport Development Planning Committee, Anson Chan. In the end, Mrs. Chan apologised "unreservedly" to the public , and the incident was finally put to rest.

Development of the HKIA

The new airport opened with only one runway, with the second runway, the North Runway, coming into operation in May 1999[30]. The Northwest Passenger Concourse of the Passenger Terminal Building came into service on 20 January 2001 , 18 months after the opening of the airport.

Over the years, the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has carried out a number of improvement works to expand and upgrade airport facilities to cope with the increasing air traffic demand. In 2001, the AA put forward the "Hong Kong International Airport Development Plan 2020" to develop the SkyCity as the airport's commercial support facility to meet the market demand for a commercial area at the airport . The first phase of the project, comprising Terminal 2, AsiaWorld-Expo and SkyPier, was completed and opened in 2008.

There are also plans to upgrade the facilities in the flying area. In 2006, AA announced a $3 billion project to build ten new cargo parking bays and a 20,000-square-metre North Satellite Concourse, which opened on 15 January 2010. The new concourse, with ten narrow-body parking bays with bridges, is designed to accommodate the increasing number of narrow-body aircraft at the airport, so that passengers travelling on these flights can board and disembark their aircraft without having to transfer to shuttle buses because their aircraft are parked at remote parking spaces without bridges. In the same year, AA proposed the Midfield Area Development Plan to build a new passenger concourse in the midfield area between the two existing runways to provide 20 parking spaces to relieve some of the pressure from the rapid growth in passenger traffic at the airport ; the midfield concourse (gates 201 to 230) was completed and opened on 28 December 2015, with the opening of the unmanned train to connect to Passenger Terminal 1 as scheduled. [35]

After years of dedicated operation by the Airport Authority, Hong Kong International Airport has been awarded the "World's Best Airport" and "5-Star Airport" by Skytrax, a UK-based professional air transport research organisation, and was voted the world's "Airport of the Year" by Air Transport World, a leading aviation magazine, in 2016.[36] The Airport Authority is also proud of its reputation as a leading airport in the world.

Franchised Bus Services

The HKIA is located far away from most parts of the territory and is not as well located as the Kai Tak Airport in the urban area, which makes it particularly important to have a well-planned ground transportation network.

Planning route networks

The Transport Department commissioned the Transport Study for the New Airport (TRANSNA, 新機場運輸研究) in June 1995 to formulate a public transport service strategy for the new airport and Lantau Island for implementation between 1997 and 2006, which recommended the provision of a wide range of public transport services including franchised buses. The study recommended a wide range of public transport services including franchised buses, and a total of 35 bus routes were planned, 25 of which were specifically for the new airport and Tung Chung New Town.

When the Airport Core Projects were in full swing in 1996, the Government invited tenders on 29 March for 25 new airport and North Lantau bus franchises, inviting bids for six airport buses and 19 North Lantau External Routes; the routes were divided into two groups, one between Tung Chung, the new airport, and the Hong Kong/Kowloon urban area, and the other to and from the New Territories. The terms of the two groups stipulated that the total cost of the services was to be met from the new airport and Tung Chung new towns, and that the total cost of the services was to be met from the new airport and Tung Chung new towns. The terms stipulated that a total of about 200 buses would be required for the two groups of services, and that the airport route operator would be required to provide a special quality service to passengers[39]; the operator was also required to set up a customer service centre to assist passengers in using the public bus services at the airport.

By the close of the tender on 17 May, the Government had received bids from Citybus, Long Win Bus (LWB) and Kwoon Chung Bus. Taking into account all relevant factors, an inter-departmental committee decided to award the franchise for a group of 13 routes in the urban areas of Hong Kong and Kowloon to Citybus, and the franchise for a group of 12 routes in the New Territories to LWB. The franchises are for a period of six years commencing on 1 June 1997.

The Ground Transportation Centre (GTC) opened earlier on 22 June 1998 to coincide with the commencement of the Airport Logistics Area, and 19 bus routes were put into service at the same time. The new airport opened on 6 July with 27 bus routes in service, including seven airport bus routes (Airbus routes), eight North Lantau External Routes, four overnight routes, six shuttle routes between Tung Chung Station and the airport, and two shuttle routes running only on the Airport island ; franchised buses carried an average of 107,300 passengers per day during the first two weeks of operation from 6 July.

Current Route Types

Since the development of the route network, there are nearly 80 franchised bus routes serving the Airport, which are classified into five types: "A", "E", "N", "NA" and "S". Both "A" and "E" routes run between the Airport and Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories. "A" routes provide express airport bus (named Airbus routes in Schedule of Routes Order) services directly to the Passenger Terminal Building, while "E" routes mainly serve Tung Chung and the Airport Logistics Area. "N" Routes provide overnight service, while route "S" serves Tung Chung and the Airport Island. In addition, there is another "B" route which stops at the Airport area, but it is not counted as it is not numbered for the Airport.

"A Routes" - Airbus Routes

"A" Routes such as Route A29 provides express bus services direct from urban to airport, generally using coach-specification buses

The main article of this section is Airport bus.

Routes under Citybus and LWB with route numbers prefixed with "A" are specifically named "Cityflyer" and "LWB Airport Service" (formerly known as "Airbus"), which are categorised as "Airbus Routes" in the Government's Schedule of Routes Order, and provide express bus services between the Airport Passenger Terminal Building and various districts in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, without passing through Tung Chung or making stops at the Airport Logistics Area (except for designated trips of individual routes). In response to passenger demand, the dedicated fleet of "A" routes adopts coach specifications and is equipped with facilities such as aircraft-style seats and extra-long luggage racks. According to the scale of fares, "A" routes are allowed to charge higher fares than "E" routes.

All regular "A" routes terminate at the Ground Transportation Centre (GTC). Regular trips departing from the Ground Transportation Centre will not make any stop at the Airport and will leave the Airport immediately (except for routes observing the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB) Hong Kong Port). For Airport-bound routes, buses will drop off passengers at the Departures Kerb of the Terminal 1 on arrival on the Airport Island, and then return to the Ground Transportation Centre to complete the trip. For routes heading for the HZMB Hong Kong Port, buses will first follow the existing route via the Lantau Link to Terminal 1, then to the Hong Kong Port Passenger Clearance Building and back to the Ground Transportation Centre (GTC), whereas the new routes commenced at a later stage and all routes via the Tuen Mun Chek Lap Kok Tunnel Road goes to the Passenger Terminal 1 via the Hong Kong Port Passenger Clearance Building first.

However, due to a number of factors such as insufficient number of luxury buses, service deployment or route demand, there are often instances of "downgraded service", i.e. the bus companies will deploy ordinary seat specification buses to operate "A" routes. Despite the fact that the use of passenger buses is not a statutory requirement, the concept that "A" routes are equivalent to luxury bus services" has become a deep-rooted concept in the minds of the general public.

(Although NLB Route A35 also starts with "A", it is significantly different from the "A" routes operated by Citybus and LWB. It passes through Tung Chung and the Airport Logistics Area, and does not reach the Departures Kerb on Cheong Hong Road, and is only classified as a "North-South Lantau Ordinary Route" in the Schedule of Routes Order.)

"E" Routes - North Lantau External Routes

AsiaWorld-Expo Bus Terminus is one of the hubs for Airport "E" Routes

The main article of this section is North Lantau External Route.

These routes start with the letter "E", which stands for "External", and like the "A" routes, they connect the Airport with Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories, while the "E" routes serve a wider catchment area, passing through Tung Chung and/or the Airport Logistics Area, with Tung Chung residents and airport staff being the majority of the passengers , and are usually operated by normal buses, with the fares generally being nearly half cheaper than those of the "A" routes. In the early years, some areas were not covered by "A" routes, and the "E" routes in these areas ran via the Departures Kerb at Terminal 1.

Not all "E" routes run to and from the Airport; most of them terminate at the Ground Transportation Centre or the AsiaWorld-Expo, passing through the Passenger Terminal, Cathay Pacific City, the Aviation Catering Area, the Cargo Area, and then Tung Chung town centre and the highway, or vice versa; the journey time for the outlying islands alone is about 15 minutes longer than that for the "A" routes.

(Though Citybus Route B5 was categorised under the "North Lantau External Routes", it is distinctly different from other routes in the group. It does not pass through Tung Chung, the Airport area and the Lantau Link Bus-Bus Interchange, nor does it leave North Lantau. Instead, it is dedicated to serving the HZMB Hong Kong Port, with the only commonality being the North Lantau Highway.)

"S" Routes - North Lantau Shuttle Routes

The North Lantau Shuttle Bus Route S56

The North Lantau Shuttle Routes, represented by the "S" prefix, provides a short-distance shuttle service within the airport area and between the airport and Tung Chung, and is operated by regular buses. "S" routes have three main functions:

• To connect the Airport Logistics Area and remote areas on the island, such as the aircraft maintenance area;
• To facilitate Tung Chung residents to commute to different parts of the Airport island;
• To carry residents from outside the district to and from the airport, either from the MTR Tung Chung Station or the Chek Lap Kok Ferry Pier.

Since the closure of the Chek Lap Kok Ferry Pier in late 2002, the "S" routes has been running between the Airport and Tung Chung, both still operating and newly commenced.

Routes that travel only within Tung Chung New Town and not serving the Airport are classified as "North Lantau Routes" operated by New Lantao Bus (NLB).

"N" Routes - North Lantau External Overnight Routes

The North Lantau External Overnight Route N26

The main article of this section is North Lantau External Overnight Routes.

The "N" routes, which provide services during late night hours, can be regarded as the overnight versions of the "E" or "S" routes, and most of them serve the Airport Passenger Terminal, the Logistics Area and Tung Chung together.

Among the existing Airport "N" routes, only the earliest three overnight routes are providing overnight service to and from Macau Ferry, Tsim Sha Tsui and Tsuen Wan respectively. The rest of the "N" routes that came into operation later on are only providing a few trips in the early morning and early evening hours, and most of them are departing from Tung Chung Station, travelling through the Backup Area to the Passenger Terminal Building, and then going to the various districts directly, and vice versa.

"NA" Routes - Overnight Airbus Routes

The Airport Authority provides shuttle buses for Logistics Area staff to interchange to "NA" Routes at Ground Transportation Centre

In view of the long journey time of most of the "N" routes, and following the Airport Authority's reflection of airport staff's requests to the Transport Department, the two bus companies launched four "NA" overnight express airport bus routes on a trial basis in the summer holidays of 2015. The "NA" routes are modelled on the daytime "A" routes, stopping only at Terminal 1, the Airport (Ground Transportation Centre) Bus Terminus and Cathay Pacific City (except for routes NA11, NA12 and NA29), without detouring to other parts of the Airport island, so as to minimise journey time for the convenience of staff and passengers. After the commissioning of the HZMB, all existing "NA" routes via Lantau Link terminated at the HZMB Hong Kong Port and depart to the Airport (Ground Transportation Centre) before heading to various districts in Hong Kong. On the other hand, all "NA" routes via Tuen Mun Chek Lap Kok Tunnel Road terminate at Cathay Pacific City, and the routing is the opposite of other "NA" routes, with the outbound routing going to the Airport (Ground Transportation Centre) first, then to the HZMB Hong Kong Port and then to the Northwest New Territories. The reverse is also true, with a stop at the HZMB Hong Kong Port Passenger Clearance Building before proceeding to the Airport Passenger Terminal Building.

The AA, in conjunction with employers on the airport island, provides free shuttle bus services to Cathay Pacific City and the Ground Transportation Centre during the midnight hours for staff to transfer to the "NA" route. In addition, the AA provides a special subsidy to the bus companies for the "NA" routes. If the actual fare revenue is lower than the cost that the bus companies have agreed to bear, the difference will be subsidised by the AA.

Others

NLB Route B4 runs between the HZMB Hong Kong Port and the HKIA. At the time of the commissioning of HZMB, the western slip road of Shun Long Road connecting to the North Lantau Highway had not yet been completed, thus temporarily diverting NLB Route B6 to run through the roads on the Airport island. As the two routes are not designed for the Airport, they are not described here.

Bus Termini

The Hong Kong International Airport is served by a number of bus terminals located in different areas on Chek Lap Kok Island.

The Airport (Ground Transportation Centre) Bus Terminus (GTC), which is connected to the Passenger Terminal Building, is the hub of the airport bus network. Apart from the airport bus routes ("A" routes), which departs from the GTC, most of the external "E" and "N" routes heading towards the urban area stop at the GTC; the GTC is also equipped with a Citybus Customer Service Centre, a LWB Customer Service Centre, a ticketing office, and a detailed route guidebook, etc., in order to cater to the needs of tourists who know nothing about the traffic conditions in Hong Kong.

Next to AsiaWorld-Expo, the AsiaWorld-Expo Bus Terminus is second only to the Ground Transportation Centre and serves as the terminus for a number of external routes ("E" routes).

Information of bus termini
Article name	Location	Introduction
Passenger Terminal Buildings
Airport (Ground Transportation Centre) Bus Terminus	Ground level, Ground Transportation Centre	The largest franchised bus terminus on the Airport Island where passengers can take buses to major districts in Hong Kong
Coach Station, Car Park 1	Car Park 1, Cheong Tat Road	For local coaches and non-franchised buses only, including Airport Staff Shuttle Buses, hotel buses, resident buses and Mainland-bound coaches
SkyCity
SKYCITY Bus Terminus	G/F, 11 SKIES, 8 Sky City Road East	Opened on 26 November 2023 and serves as the terminus for several daytime North Lantau External Routes.
Logistics Area
Cathay Pacific City Bus Terminus	Scenic Road inside Cathay Pacific City
SuperTerminal One Bus Terminus	9 Chun Wan Road inside SuperTerminal One	Starting point for SuperTerminal One Staff Bus, LWB Route S62 once made a stop there
Aircraft Maintenance Area Bus Terminus	80 South Perimeter Road outside HAECO	Terminus for Citybus Routes E21C, E22C, S52, S52A and LWB Routes E37C and E42C
Discontinued termini
Chek Lap Kok Ferry Pier Bus Terminus	East Coast Road beside SkyPier	In the past, the Chek Lap Kok pier was only served by local ferries, with a bus terminus attached to the pier. It has now been converted into the SkyPier, providing cross-boundary ferry routes between Macau and cities in Guangdong Province of Mainland China. The bus terminus has been decommissioned and dismantled, and the bus routes have been relocated to AsiaWorld-Expo.
Airport (Passenger Terminal Building)	Cheong Tat Road outside Terminal 1	Once a terminus for NLB Routes A35 and N35, discontinued after the commencement of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge Hong Kong Port Public Transport Interchange
Coach Station, Car Park 2	L3, Arrivals Level, Terminal 2

Information of bus intermediate stops
Street/Road	Stop	Introduction
Passenger Terminal Buildings
Cheong Hong Road	Terminal 1 (Cheong Hong Road)
Cheong Tat Road	Terminal 1 (Cheong Tat Road)
	Cheong Tat Road
	Regal Oriental Hotel
Sky City Road East	Hong Kong SkyCity Marriott Hotel
	Sky City Interchange
Logistics Area
Chek Lap Kok South Road	Chek Lap Kok South Road
Chun Wan Road	Airport Freigt Forwarding Centre
	Chun Wan Road South
	HACTL
Chun Ping Road	Asia Airfreight Terminal
South Perimeter Road	DHL's Central Asia Hub
	Government Flying Services
Scenic Road	Aviation Fuel Tank Farm
	Cathay Pacific City	Terminus of LWB Routes NA33, NA36 and NA37
Tung Fai Road	CAD Headquarters
Catering Road East	Chek Lap Kok Fire Station
	Cathay Dining
Catering Road West	Air Mail Centre
	Airport Police Station
East Coast Road	Cathay Pacific City (East)

SkyPier

The SkyPier, a HK$1 billion cross-boundary ferry terminal constructed by the Airport Authority at the eastern end of the airport island, opened on 15 January 2010 to serve airport passengers travelling between cities in the Pearl River Delta and Macau, and the unmanned Automated People Mover system has also been extended to the ground floor of the terminal, taking only four minutes to travel to and from Terminal 1, replacing the previous shuttle bus service to the restricted area of the terminal.

The SkyPier was originally located at Chek Lap Kok Ferry Pier. Airport Ferry Services Limited, a subsidiary of Discovery Bay Transportation Services Limited, launched a high-speed ferry service to and from Tuen Mun Ferry Pier on 30 June 1998. The service operated from 06:00 to 22:00, with peak hour frequency every 20 to 30 minutes, and the fare is $15 for a 10-minute journey. Ferry passengers can interchange at the bus terminus outside the Chek Lap Kok Ferry Pier for three types of shuttle buses to Tung Chung, the Airport Passenger Terminal Building and different places at Chek Lap Kok.

Since 7 May 2000, the ferry operator has extended several of these services to Tung Chung . Due to losses incurred from insufficient patronage, DBTPL ceased operation of the route on 30 June 2001 after the expiry of its three-year operating licence, and was taken over by New World First Ferry (NWFF).

To improve operational efficiency and enhance the attractiveness of the service, NWFF cancelled the meandering Tung Chung service with low patronage on 12 April 2002 and introduced several additional daily direct services between Tuen Mun and Tung Chung. In response to the dismantling of the Chek Lap Kok Ferry Pier, all sailings were diverted to Tuen Mun and Tung Chung with effect from 7 December, while shuttle bus routes S53 and S64, which were used as feeder routes for the ferry, were suspended and diverted away from the Ferry Pier respectively. Subsequently, the route ceased operation on 30 June 2008 after incurring a heavy loss.

Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB)

The main article of this section is Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge.

The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB), which was commissioned on 4 October 2018, is the first cross-boundary transport infrastructure project connecting Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau. The HZMB Hong Kong Port, officially HZMB Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities, is located on the artificial island off the north-east of the Hong Kong International Airport. The Hong Kong Port is equipped with well-connected road sections and connecting roads to facilitate access to and from the Hong Kong Port, as well as to and from North Lantau and Tuen Mun.

The Hong Kong Boundary Crossing Facilities (HKBCF) is connected to the airport, and the Hong Kong Port relies on the existing airport bus network for its bus services to the urban areas. Citybus and LWB have arranged for some of their airport bus routes ("A" routes) to detour via the Hong Kong Port Artificial Island to facilitate direct travel to and from the urban areas, while Citybus and NLB have introduced three "B" routes to serve the Port with connections to the Airport and neighbouring MTR stations.

Non-franchised Bus Services outside Restricted Areas

It is an offence for any person to provide transport pick-up service without the permission of the Airport Authority. The third party insurance of the vehicle concerned may be invalidated and passengers may not be covered. To protect passengers' personal interests, please do not take the risk of using illegal transport services.

Passengers may contact the AA staff on duty or the Police for any enquiry.

Non-franchised buses are required to hold a Tourist Information Vehicle Permit (TIV Permit) if they are required to use the coach loading area and coach waiting area at the Hong Kong International Airport for non-regular and non-scheduled transportation of passengers from the airport to their destinations. The applicant must be a member of the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Hotels Association or the Public Omnibus Operators Association. The TIV Permit holder's vehicle must also be issued with a Passenger Service Licence (PSL) endorsed by the Transport Department (TD) as "Excursion Service". Vehicles with other types of Passenger Service Licence must be approved in writing by the AA before using such facilities. Each Pass is limited to one registered Octopus. When driving a bus in or out of the Pick-up Area or the Waiting Area, the Pass holder must tap the registered Octopus of the designated vehicle against the sensor at the gate. If the Pass does not match with the registered Octopus data, access to the Boarding Area and the Waiting Area will not be granted. The validity period of the Octopus card ranges from one month to twelve months. Upon approval, a paper Octopus card must be clearly displayed on the lower left corner of the windscreen of the vehicle.

Resident Bus

At present, there are four resident bus routes serving Discovery Bay (DB02A, DB02R), Park Island (NR334) and Hong Kong Gold Coast (NR766). Among them, Discovery Bay and Park Island are not served by franchised buses as access is strictly limited to outside vehicles. Therefore, the developer's non-franchised bus companies operate their own bus routes to and from the airport; while Route DB02A is exclusively commenced for serving the Auberge Discovery Bay Hong Kong.

Some of the airline staff lives in the aforementioned housing estates, therefore these four routes all stop at Cathay Pacific City, among them Route NR766 even serves Cathay House.

Hotel Shuttle Buses

Vigor Airport Shuttle Services Limited provides point-to-point transport service between the airport and major hotels in Hong Kong by luxury coaches every half an hour to one hour. The fare is much higher than that of the Airport Buses ("A" routes), and slightly more expensive than that of the MTR Airport Express, which once provided free shuttle buses to some of the hotels.

The operator has set up an enquiry counter at Business Service Counter B18 in the Airport Pick-up Hall B of Terminal 1, and has also arranged for staff to guide passengers to the waiting room of the Coach Station, Car Park 1 for boarding.

Individual hotels will also arrange their own car service to transport their guests to the Airport.

Airport Staff Shuttle Bus

As the Hong Kong International Airport operates on a 24-hour basis, in addition to franchised bus services, some employers on the Airport island currently provide about 180 employees' service routes by non-franchised buses to cater for the transport needs of their staff travelling to and from the urban areas.

The Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) provides its own shuttle buses to transport airport staff to and from the gate houses, various parts of the Passenger Terminal Building and other facilities at the airport apron to facilitate travelling to and from work by staff of various airport service contractors. This service is provided by the AA with bus captains provided by outsourced contractors, similar to that of China Light Power (CLP)'s staff buses. However, as the vehicles will only operate within the restricted area of the airport, they are not issued with Transport Department (TD)'s motor vehicle licences or passenger service licences. In addition, to tie in with the introduction of the overnight airport bus route "NA", the AA has commissioned an operator to run Airport Staff Shuttle Buses to take airport staff from various locations in the back-of-house area to Cathay Pacific City or the Ground Transportation Centre (GTC) to interchange with NA routes free of charge in the middle of the night.

The Cathay Pacific Group and HAECO, which is also part of the Swire Group, provide staff buses for their staff to travel to and from urban areas, the Cathay Pacific Group's offices on the airport island and the HAECO Maintenance Hangar. The staff bus service is operated by Kwoon Chung Bus, and both Cathay Pacific and HAECO staff are required to register their Octopus cards with Kwoon Chung Buses in order to use the service. In addition, Cathay Pacific has commissioned Hong Kong Airport Services Limited (HAS) to operate a staff shuttle bus service between Cathay Pacific City, Cathay House/CNAC House and the Passenger Terminal Building, and HAS also operates a crew bus service to take Cathay Pacific and Air Hong Kong (AHK)'s crews to the apron for duty after check-in.

Foreign airlines may engage non-franchised bus companies or hotels to arrange buses to take their crews to their next hotel and back to the airport for duty. Other airport service contractors also provide staff shuttle buses for their staff, e.g. Airport Freight Forwarding Centre, Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals (HACTL), etc.

Transport Services on Apron

The main article of this section is Airport Authority#Transport Services on Apron.

Since the opening of the airport, passenger and cargo services on the apron have been operated by the Hong Kong Airport Ground Handling Services Limited (HAS). Until the early hours of 1 May 2008, the Airport Authority of Hong Kong (AAHK) reclaimed the right to operate apron passenger services, including the airport staff shuttle buses within the restricted area of the airport and the shuttle buses for passengers travelling to and from the remote apron.

Future Developments

Third Runway system

In order to cope with the long-term air traffic demand and consolidate Hong Kong's position as an international aviation hub, the Airport Authority has planned to expand the airport into a three-runway system since 2008; and in June 2011, it published the Hong Kong International Airport Master Plan 2030, which puts forward the future development plan of the airport and consults the public on the three-runway system. The $141.5 billion third runway at the airport was approved by the Executive Council on 26 April 2016 amidst controversy.

The construction of the 3,800-metre-long third runway officially commenced on 1 August the same year. The project consists of various parts, including reclamation of about 650 hectares of land to the north of the existing airport island, construction of the third runway, taxiways and aprons, the three-runway terminal building, expansion of the existing Terminal 2 to provide a full-service terminal building for passengers, construction of a new Automated People Mover (APM) and a high-speed baggage handling system, modification of the existing north runway, and the construction of a new passenger terminal and high-speed baggage handling system. The scope of the project is comparable to the construction of a new airport, including the construction of a new passenger terminal building, the modification of the existing north runway, and other related airport supporting infrastructure, utilities and equipment. In order to meet the substantial costs of the project, the AA currently levies an Airport Construction Fee on all passengers departing from the airport.

The third runway is scheduled to open in 2022, after which the existing north runway will be closed for about two years for reconfiguration. The entire three-runway system is expected to be operational by the end of 2024. With the three-runway system in full operation, HKIA will be able to cope with air traffic demand until at least 2030. The whole project is expected to be completed by 2024 . Prior to the commissioning of the three-runway system, AAHK will, as in the past, endeavour to enhance the existing two-runway capacity and airport facilities as far as practicable, including continuing to take forward the midfield expansion project in the airport's airfield to cope with the rapid growth in air traffic demand in the next few years.

SkyCity

The Airport Authority is actively pursuing the "SKYCITY航天城" development project, which will create a specialised area for retail, dining and entertainment, and will not only enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of the Hong Kong International Airport, but also serve as a strategic project for the overall development of Lantau Island as well as Hong Kong.

The over 1,000-room Sky City hotel project commenced construction in 2017 and is expected to be completed between 2020 and 2021. In addition, the development and management right of the 350,000 square metres of integrated retail, dining and entertainment facilities at Sky City was granted in April 2018 and is expected to be completed in phases from 2023 to 2027. Compared with the existing Cityplaza in Taikoo Shing of about 100,000 square metres or Harbour City of about 200,000 square metres, Sky City will become the largest retail, dining and entertainment centre in Hong Kong upon completion, and will be equipped with ancillary facilities such as a transport interchange and at least 2,800 car parking spaces to cater for visitors' needs.

In addition, the Government has invited the AA to submit a development proposal for the development above the artificial island of the HZMB Hong Kong Port. Together with the three-runway system, the development of the Sky City, the high-value-added logistics centre in the Cargo Area, and the future development of AsiaWorld-Expo, Lantau Island will become an "airport city" connecting Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao with the rest of the world, thereby reinforcing and enhancing Hong Kong's status as an international business centre.

SkyPier Terminal

The main article of this section is SkyPier Terminal.

The HZMB Hong Kong Port is adjacent to the HKIA. However, the two closed areas are not connected to each other, so travellers going to the HKIA via the HZMB still need to go through Hong Kong immigration clearance at the HZMB Hong Kong Port, and then transfer to NLB Route B4 or other modes of transport to go to the Passenger Terminal Building of the HKIA to go through boarding formalities.

In view of this, the Airport Authority of Hong Kong (AAHK) has planned to construct a SkyPier Terminal next to the SkyPier on the north-eastern side of the airport, with a closed flyover connecting to the HZMB, which is expected to be completed in 2023. By then, travellers will only need to check in and check their baggage at the Macau or Zhuhai control points, and then take a cross-border bus to reach the restricted area of the Hong Kong airport directly, without having to go through Hong Kong's immigration and customs clearance procedures, and without having to pay the Air Passenger Departure Tax (APDT). With the eventual opening of the terminal building on 30 August 2023, the Macau HK Airport Direct was changed to terminate at the SkyPier Terminal instead.

Gallery

The Airport Bus detailed network map in July 1998 (from a former user of HKBDB, drawn with a street map)

Airport Administration Building Shuttle Bus service schedule

Terminal 1 has a number of access routes on the departure level connecting the Airport Express level and the Cheong Hong Road "Departures Kerb" level (August 2017)

Terminal 2 in operation between 2007 and 2019

Hong Kong International Airport used to be in the top 10 in the world in terms of passenger traffic, with a large number of travellers gathered at the departure level of Passenger Terminal Building in picture (August 2017)

AsiaWorld-Expo

Related Articles

EAHK article：

Hong Kong International Airport

• Airport Authority Hong Kong
• CAD Headquarters
• Airport Passenger Terminal Buildings
• North Satellite Concourse
• Airport Logistics Area
• Airport Core Programme Exhibition Centre
• Lantau Link Visitors Centre
• Cityflyer
• Airbus
• Kai Tak Airport Bus Terminus
• Kai Tak Airport (Cargo Terminal) Bus Terminus

External Links

• Hong Kong Airport Core Programme website
• Hong Kong International Airport websute
  • Three-Runway System website
    • Project Information Portal
    • Scope and Progress Update of the Three-Runway System Development, Legislative Council Subcommittee to Follow Up Issues Relating to the Three-Runway System at the Hong Kong International Airport, 5 December 2016
• Franchised bus routes to and from the airport and urban areas as at February 2015
  • Bus-bus interchange schemes provided by Citybus and Long Win Bus
  • Airport staff fare concessions offered by Citybus and Long Win Bus
• 《如何由你所住地區前往機場》 (From your home to the airport - Different ways to get there), Transport Department, June 1998.
• 1996年運輸署公開招標新機場公共巴士服務的文件（節錄）, posted to "中華巴士紀念館-Facebook" group.
• Hong Kong Police Force Website: Transport at Airport
• 《青嶼幹線》 (Lantau Link), reproduced from The University of Hong Kong Libraries
• Skytrax World Airport Awards
• Wikipedia: Hong Kong International Airport

To facilitate quoting and enquiries, the following redirect page(s) will direct to this page:

HKIA, 10 Core Projects, Three-Runway System, Three-runway system, Chek Lap Kok Airport, Hong Kong Airport Core Programme, New Airport, 10 Core Projects for the Airport and Airport Island

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