Hong Kong’s Three Runway System is a crowning achievement for the Airport City’s regional positioning

Last week, Hong Kong International Airport’s operation successfully became a Three-Runway System (3RS) for the first time. A significant milestone for the Airport City and a sign – if any were needed – that aviation in Asia Pacific is set to grow at pace.

The airport began three runway operations at 3.50pm on 28 November, with CX8333 having the honour of being the first departure from the central runway. It will have capacity for up to 102 movements per-hour and 120 million passengers a year, reinforcing Hong Kong’s position as a major international aviation hub.

It was a seamless and significant transition for both airport and airspace alike, and I want to offer my warm congratulations to everyone at Airport Authority Hong Kong and the Civil Aviation Department on behalf of NATS. Our organisations have a long history of working together – such as the implementation of RECAT, Technical Safeguarding and through the deployment of internationally experienced Air Traffic Controllers – and we are proud to have played even just a small role their success.

There are certainly lessons the industry can learn, not just from the transition itself, but from the vision Hong Kong has shown in getting to this point. While the new runway has understandably garnered the limelight, there is a wider strategy at play here that touches every element of the airport operation. The tarmac and taxiways are the tip of the iceberg in what is a fundamental reimagining of a digitalised airport of the future’s purpose and positioning.

A few of weeks ago, myself and some other members of the NATS team, including our CEO Martin Rolfe, were invited to see the airport’s new control tower, and which successfully transitioned into operation prior to the Three Runway System going live.

Visiting the new control tower before it went into operational service

On first inspection it looks like a modern, yet traditional physical controller tower, but it has in fact been augmented with a full range of digital support tools to enhance safety and efficiency. This hybrid set up, taking advantage of the 240 cameras deployed around the airfield, allows each controller a totally unfettered view of their area of responsibility. And this embrace of technology extends well beyond the tower.

The Searidge Technologies digital technology platform that underpins the new tower is the same that powers the airport’s spectacular Integrated Airport Centre (IAC). From here, airport and airline teams sit side by side monitoring the entire operational flow, including apron traffic, passenger movements, land and sea transport and more. The airport is even making use of autonomous vehicles. One of the big innovations is the Digital Apron Management System which allows for remote marshalling across the airfield.

Inside the Integrated Airport Centre

It is this technology convergence that is so revolutionary – the use a unifying digital technology platform to allow the entire airport community to share the same information from a ‘single point of truth’ and coordinate on decision making and act based upon it. A lot of other airports are talking about this, but AAHK is living it, doing it and reaping the benefits of it.

At NATS we are working on a project that imagines what an airport in 2040 might look like; the tools it would need, the technologies it would use and how it would operate. Hong Kong is already on that journey and has set itself up as an exemplar for the rest of the industry to follow.

Congratulations again to the Hong Kong team on a fantastic achievement.

You can read more about Hong Kong’s digital transformation in our interview with Chapman Fong, Deputy Director of Airport Operations, in ELEVATE.