HK aims to sustain edge as aviation hub

"We did fight, but we did have discussions as to who controls what and takes which piece of airspace. Fortunately, we are now under the same country, China. That's why we managed to have discussions," Ng said at the Shenzhen conference.

Since last year, Hong Kong airport and other airports in the Pearl River Delta had set up a working group to meet regularly to improve co-ordination of airspace over the delta and improve flight procedures.

"We have been doing very well in the past. How are we going to sustain our competitive edge? This is where we will work hard, to increase traffic capacity. We have a plan to increase runway and airspace capacity to improve our competitiveness as a major international aviation hub," he said.

If Hong Kong airport decided to build a third runway, its air traffic could rise to 102 aircraft movements per hour in 2020 from 59 at present, Ng said. A third runway would take 10 years to build at a cost of tens of billions of dollars, he added.