F 
R

9
- 
9 
8

---

Home | Update | LATEST ISSUE | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 9/98

HONGKONGS NEW AIRPORT OPENS AMID CHAOS

Situated on an artificial island in the sea, Chek Lap Kok airport is supposed to boost Kong Kong's struggling economy. However, the debut of the "High-Tech-Cathedral" constructed from glass and steel was a fiasco: A series of hitches almost shut down the airport.

On the morning of July 6 the Cathay-Pacific-Jumbo touched down on the southern runway as planned. It was a record flight: The 747, which had taken off from New York fifteen and a half hours earlier, had, for the first time, covered the distance to Hong Kong without a stop. Staged for the media this was a great start for Chek Lap Kok's opening,. What happened afterwards was anything but brilliant.

Only a few hours after the Cathay-Pacific Jumbo had arrived at the brand new high-tech airport, which was designed by British star architect Sir Norman Foster, chaos ensued. In the Y shaped terminal, which is the world's biggest passenger terminal, monitors went down. Furthermore, air condition systems failed and toilets overflowed. Passengers could not find their way because of the lack of signposts and telephone lines went down. It was reported that even the lights went out intermittently. And last but not least the ceiling of the coach station, which was also constructed of glass and steel, leaked.

Since some of the passenger bridges were out of action, many aircraft were only able to take off after several hours' delay. The fate of the Cathay flight CX461 was no isolated case: The evening flight to Seoul waited one and a half hours for clearance to take-off - then it rolled back to the gate. Since the aircraft was going to arrive much later, the destination airport would have already been closed.

There were long faces at arrivals as well. Some of the passengers, who had arrived at Chek Lap Kok, had to wait hours for their luggage, that is if it arrived at all. The cause: Computer bugs in the baggage handling system. Passengers leaving the airport had similar difficulties with their luggage. In many cases looking for luggage at the destination was pointless because it had not been taken on board. It was estimated that in the first two days of operation 10,000 pieces of luggage were misrouted. The series of hitches did not stop at the apron. Aircraft that had just landed had to wait for hours on end, when the display for the parking positions had broken down again. The result: Passengers missed their connecting flights and flight schedules were no longer worth the paper they were written on.

Affected worst of all was the handling of airfreight which collapsed completely. The cargo apron was jam-packed with containers that could neither be loaded nor unloaded. On the third biggest airfreight hub in the world fresh fish, vegetables and other perishables were rotting. Again, computer bugs were the cause. According to the media Hong Kong's supply of perishable goods was endangered, for a short time at least. The fact is that there were hardly any foreign newspapers. Without further ado HACTL, the region's biggest airfreight handling firm, started up its old freight terminal at Kai Tak Airport. Apparently this did not help much either. A short time later the firm stopped handling freight completely.

Chaos during take-off: Because of utter disorganisation Chek Lap Kok made negative headlines all over the world, comparable only with the once chaotic airport in Denver. The crisis over the mammoth project, that had obviously not been tested thoroughly, even occupied the Hong Kong Parliament. It was especially noteworthy that the airport authorities had prided themselves with the fact that the airport had been completed in only seven years. However, the grand opening had to be postponed once. Chek Lap Kok, the artificial island in the sea had been praised repeatedly as the world's most modern airport and the most important aviation hub for Asia. It supplies flights round the clock, is easily accessible by rail or road and has enormous capacities.

The construction including rail/road link cost almost 36 billion DM. Chek Lap Kok is theoretically able to handle 35 million passengers per year now. The second runway is planned for completion by the end of this year. Once the last expansion phase is completed in 2004, the "mega" airport will be able to cope with 87 million passengers and nine million tons freight. However, no one knows whether the Asian crisis will mess up these plans.

Three weeks after opening the situation at Chek Lap Kok turned into more or less normal conditions. However, there are still some problems with freight. The airport's embarrassing premiere will be remembered for a long time. Especially by the Asians, who value harmony so much.

From page 32 of FLUG REVUE 9/98