New US$1.3bn Midfield Concourse opens at HKIA
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Hong Kong International Airport’s (HKIA) new Midfield Concourse (MFC) officially opened on 28 December 2015, following four years of construction.
Located to the west of Terminal 1 and between the two existing runways, the new HK$10 billion (US$1.3bn) development covers an area of 105,000m² over five storeys and provides an extra 20 aircraft parking stands.
It is connected to T1 via a new automated people mover. In the coming weeks and months, new restaurants, coffee shops and retail outlets will be added.
“The MFC is an important development as it will help HKIA meet the increasing passenger traffic demand,” said Jack So, chairman of Hong Kong’s Airport Authority (AA).
“In the past 12 months, HKIA has handled 68.2 million passengers, marking year-on-year increase of 8.3%. With its capacity to serve an additional 10m passengers every year, the MFC will be able to increase the number of flights using air bridges to board and disembark, enhancing the overall passenger experience.”
The MFC forms a major part of HKIA’s expansion strategy, which will also include the development of a third runway on reclaimed land. This would allow the airport to handle 102m passengers and 607,000 aircraft movements per year by 2030.
The first departure from the MFC was Hong Kong Airlines’ flight HX658, bound for Okinawa. An inauguration ceremony was held at the departure gate before take-off. CK Ng, AA’s executive director of airport operations, said he now plans to gradually increase operations at the MFC over the coming months.
“To ensure smooth airport operations, we will gradually increase the usage of the MFC as planned in the next few months. We expect it will serve about 20% of daily passenger flights when operating at full capacity by next March,” Ng said.
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