The Hong Kong International Airport was inaugurated 2 July 1998 by President Jiang Zemin, and opened for business on 6 July 1998 with one (south) runway and projected annual capacity of 35mn passengers and 3mn tonnes of cargo. New comprehensive traffic forecasts completed in 1994 indicated faster growth than envisaged. In the period 1989-2000, passenger traffic grew at an annual average rate of 6.1% while cargo averaged 10.5%. As a result, construction of the second (north) runway and completion of the Northwest Concourse of the Passenger terminal Building were advanced and brought into operation in May 1999 and Jan 2000, increasing passenger handling capacity to 45mn a year.

In August 2003-August 2004, 35.5mn people used the Hong Kong airport at a 30% rate of increase over the same period the previous year. In total, the HKIA handled 2.963mn tonnes of cargo in Aug 2003-Aug 2004, at a 15.5% rate of increase.

Like the port, the airport has benefited greatly from the rapid growth in the Pearl River Delta hinterland. The main thrust therefore of the Airport Authority's operating plan is to maintain steady connectivity flow between the PRD and Hong Kong airport. The latest initiative has been the SkyPier ferry transfer service between PRD ports and the airport. The AA has also formed a joint venture with Hong Kong Air cargo Terminals Ltd (HACTL) to develop an air cargo consolidation centre in Futian in southern China.

Several initiatives have been set out in the past year that has seen increased investment in airport infrastructures. Asia Airfreight Terminal (AAT) announced in June 2004 that it is investing HK$1.75bn to construct a new terminal that will be completed by end-2006. It will boast an annual handling capacity of 910,000 tonnes, tripling AAT's current design capacity.

International express company, DHL, through DHL International (Hong Kong) Ltd, entered into a franchise agreement with the AA for the development, construction and operation of a US$100mn dedicated Express Cargo Terminal (ECT). The terminal was opened in August 2004.

A single ground floor facility on a 17-hectare site located at the northeast corner of the airport will become the Exhibition Centre, a public-private joint venture project that the Government of the HKSAR will develop with a private developer. The Hong Kong Government's share in funding for the Centre is up to HK$2bn. The Airport Authority is providing the land. The initial phase is scheduled for completion in end-2005 or early 2006.

The HKIA has become the logistics and multimodal transport hub of Asia with such initiatives as the Marine Cargo Terminal and Tradeport Hong Kong Ltd. The Marine Cargo Terminal was formally opened at the end of March 2003 with an annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes and caters to vessels up to 50 metres long with draughts of 2.7 metres. The MCT is an agreement between the AA and Chu Kong Air-Sea Union Transportation Co. Ltd. (CKSA), a subsidiary of Chu Kong Shipping Enterprises (Holdings) Co. Ltd., who holds the initial five year licence.

Located at a 1.38-hectare site in the South Commercial District of the airport, Hong Kong Tradeport - a logistics centre for processing time-critical air cargo was commissioned in 2003. With a total gross floor area of 28,200sqm, the three-storey centre provides logistics and supply chain management services such as inventory/stock management, specialist cargo handling, order processing and assembly configurimg. Capital investment for the building equipment is HK$530mn. The logistics centre is operated and managed by Tradeport Hong Kong Ltd.

Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd (HACTL) operates SuperTerminal 1 (ST1) which handles about 85% of the cargo throughput at the airport and is the world's largest stand-alone air cargo handling facility. ST1's existing capacity is 2.6mn tonnes per annum, and has a site area of 171,322sqm. The main floor area comprises 288,341sqm and the Express centre is 40,361sqm. ST1 has fully automated Container Storage System with more than 3,500 storage positions for airline containers, and fully automated Box Storage System with some 10,000 storage positions for bulk cargo. ST1 facilities include perishable, refrigerated, valuables cargo handling, as well as dangerous goods, livestock, minishipment and 20ft container handling. The rest is handled by Asia Airfreight Terminals. HACTL's ST1 covers a 17-hectare site with a six-storey main building plus a two-storey Express Centre. ST1 has a design capacity of 2.4mn tonnes while the Express Centre is made to handle up to 200,000 tonnes.

A third cargo facility, the Airport Freight Forwarding Centre that is in close proximity to the two cargo terminals, comprises a three-storey building with a total lettable area of 120,000sqm for cargo storage and handling. The centre has 53 independent freight stations on each floor served by three wide-lane ramps (two lanes up, one down) that enable 40-foot containers direct access to the various floors. The AFFC subsidiary, ACLS (Airport Cargo Logistics Services) is on the ground floor of the nine-storey office building.