Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has been in operation since 1998. HKIA is the primary airport in Hong Kong and also serve Mainland China, in particular, the Pearl River Delta (PRD). It is the world busiest airport in term of cargo and one of the busiest passenger airport in the world. Over the years, the HKIA has been playing a significant role in Hong Kong’s economy and has experienced high growth rates of passengers, cargo and aircraft movements. HKIA’s original design was based on the 1992 New Airport Master Plan. This document estimated that by 2040 HKIA would handle 87 million passengers, 9 million tons of cargo and 380,000 aircraft movements, the majority of which would be from origin and destination traffic. Over the past decade, demand has increased dramatically and the mix of aircraft has changed.
As a hub airport, HKIA now serves a significant volume of transfer/transit traffic and a growing number of narrow body aircraft. Given that air traffic demand is forecast to reach 97 million passengers, 8.9 million tons of cargo and 602,000 flight movements per year by 2030 for HKIA, these changes, coupled with supply constraints, mean HKIA must optimize runway capacity to meet growing demand. To meet these challenges, the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK) has put forward two development options in HKIA Master Plan 2030 for public consultation from 3 June 2011 to 2 September 2011. Option 1 is to maintain the airport’s two-runway system, and Option 2 is to expand into a three-runway system. The University of Hong Kong’s Social Sciences Research Centre (SSRC) had compiled the results of the public consultation, having taken into account a combination of eight