Public Exhibition and Forum on Environmental Impact Assessment for Three-runway System to Kick Off on 1 August

(HONG KONG, 14 July 2013) — Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) today announced that it will host a four-day exhibition and two public forum sessions on the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the planned three-runway system project at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), to be held from 1 to 4 August 2013 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

John Chai, Executive Director, Projects for the AA, said, "We are making progress with the studies on the 12 environmental aspects that comprise this EIA. We hope to engage members of the public and provide them with an update and gauge their feedback on the EIA studies."

Members of the public who would like to attend the forums on 3 and 4 August can register online at the AA's dedicated project website www.threerunwaysystem.com, or call the hotline at (852) 2501 7959 within office hours, starting from 15 July. Those who have enrolled successfully will be notified by email or by phone.

The AA issued the Hong Kong International Airport Master Plan 2030 in June 2011, and later held a three-month consultation with the public on two development options for the airport. The consultation concluded in September 2011. The Social Sciences Research Centre of the University of Hong Kong reported that 73% of respondents to a survey held during the consultation preferred the three-runway system for HKIA's future development. The Government gave its approval in principle in March 2012 to adopt the three-runway system as the airport's future development blueprint for planning. In mid-2012, the AA began the statutory EIA process to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of the project.

"Traffic has been growing at a faster rate than the forecast made in the Master Plan 2030," added Mr Chai. "Every day it becomes increasingly more urgent for the airport to expand. We plan to complete the EIA process in mid-2014, and after this we still have to obtain other necessary government and/or statutory approvals. Once the statutory process is complete, we aim to start construction in 2016, and the planned three-runway system should be commissioned in 2023."