New airport facilities boost travel convenience

The new SkyPier currently has four berths, 20 airline check-in desks and five security screening channels; all can be expanded to meet growing demand.

On January 15, Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) officially launched two new facilities: the SkyPier, a new cross-boundary ferry terminal; and the North Satellite Concourse, which is equipped with 10 bridge-served parking stands for narrow-bodied aircraft. The facilities have been soft-opened since mid-December 2009.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang, and the Chairman of the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA), Dr. Marvin Cheung, unveiled commemorative plaques marking the grand opening of the two new facilities.

“The new SkyPier and North Satellite Concourse are part of HKIA’s near-term growth projects to enhance service levels and meet future demand,” Dr. Cheung said at the ceremony. “The SkyPier efficiently conveys passengers traveling between the Pearl River Delta (PRD) and the world via HKIA, while the North Satellite Concourse enables about 98% of our passengers to embark and disembark airplanes in an indoor, weatherproof environment.”

Southern China’s robust economic development since the 1980s has stimulated strong demand for cross-boundary transport, and a temporary SkyPier was made available in 2003 to further facilitate the movement of passengers between HKIA and the PRD region.

With an extensive air network of 150 destinations (including 40 Mainland cities),  HKIA has also served well the air transportation needs of the PRD, meeting the economic development needs of Hong Kong and contributing to the Mainland's economic growth over the past three decades.

Travelers — including international passengers and PRD residents — using the SkyPier are not required to go through immigration and customs formalities at HKIA, thus cutting travel time and making their air-to-sea or sea-to-air transfers even more hassle-free.

Passengers en route to overseas destinations via HKIA’s SkyPier are also exempt from paying the US$15.38 (HK$120) Hong Kong Airport Departure Tax. In addition, the provision of upstream check-in services at major SkyPier ports allows passengers to obtain boarding passes and check in luggage at PRD, making the ferry ride to HKIA more comfortable.

The AA began the construction of a permanent pier, located at the eastern tip of the airport island, in 2006. Designed with the provision of eight berths (four at present) and a maximum capacity for 8 million annual passengers, the 16,500-square-meter permanent SkyPier is eight times the size of the temporary facility.

The airport's Automated People Mover (APM) system has now been extended to the SkyPier, shortening the time for passengers to travel between the ferry pier and Terminal 1 to about four minutes — half of the time previously required. The SkyPier is also equipped with 20 airline check-in desks and five security screening channels; both can be expanded to meet growing demand.

The SkyPier has served almost 10 million passengers since its launch in 2003. Currently, high-speed ferries make an average of 85 trips every day, shuttling around 5,000 passengers between HKIA and eight ports in the PRD and Macao. These include Zhongshan, Zhuhai Jiuzhou, Dongguan Humen, Guangzhou Nansha, Shenzhen Shekou and Shenzhen Fuyong, as well as Macao's Taipa and Maritime Ferry Terminal.

The 20,000-square-meter North Satellite Concourse was built to serve the rising number of narrow-bodied aircraft using HKIA. With the 10 extra bridge-served parking stands, more passengers flying single-aisle airplanes will be able to embark and disembark using air bridges, and avoid the potential inconvenience of being exposed to inclement weather conditions when compared with using remote bays, which are not served by air bridges. With the new concourse, fewer than 10 flights now need to park at remote bays every day, compared with 40-50 in the past.