HONG KONG—The airport authority of Hong Kong (AAHK) has invested around HK$9 billion ($1.2 billion) to spruce up its infrastructure as it modernizes and prepares for the full recovery of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) by the end of 2024. 

The investment is on top of the HK$141.5 billion that will be spent on the three-runway system (3RS) that will bring the airport handling capacity to 120 million passengers annually. AAHK leadership including CEO Fred Lam and COO Vivian Cheung have linked the future success of Hong Kong airport with the Greater Bay Area (GBA) of southern China, with plans to further enhance intermodal transport between GBA cities and HKIA. 

Lam and Cheung spoke at the Aviation Day conference co-hosted by AAHK and IATA. 

Cheung said AAHK took the pandemic’s quiet seasons as an opportunity to change and renovate the HKIA terminal, including new boarding gates, toilets, and areas like contactless passenger processing gates. 

She added that passenger volume is currently at 60% of 2019 levels and will reach 80% in December, before it’s expected to reach 100% by the end of 2024, noting that the one year taken to achieve full recovery is due to the labor shortage in both Hong Kong and destination countries. The labor shortage is expected to ease after the Hong Kong government relaxed regulations for the import of foreign labor.   

Works are now underway to further capture the GBA market, which has a catchment area of 86 million people. Ten new upstream check-in counters will be built in GBA cities by the end of 2024 to allow passengers to check-in in mainland China before taking transport modes like rail, bus or ferry to HKIA for their respective flights. Cathay Pacific is slated to open the world’s first airline lounge in a ferry terminal, at Shenzhen’s Shezhou ferry terminal. 

Following the full completion of the 3RS in summer 2024, HKIA will have more slots, allowing new markets such as the Belt and Road Initiative countries and the Middle East to connect to Hong Kong, something not possible before the expansion.