Figure 4.1 Single Runway’s Arrival/Departure Cycle under a Mixed Mode Operation Total Cycle (Landing & Take-off) = 68sec + 54sec + 45sec = 167sec 4 RUNWAY 68sec Aircraft Landing 54sec RUNWAY 45sec Aircraft Take-Off PRACTICAL MAXIMUM CAPACITY OF HKIA’S TWO-RUNWAY SYSTEM Note: The landing aircraft must be at least 3 nautical miles from the runway end when the departure begins and may not touch down before the departing aircraft has left the runway. development of express cargo services at HKIA has resulted in a much greater percentage of cargo traffic being carried by freighter (at 60%) and the greater use of medium-sized freighters (for example, A300F of 55 tonnes), thus increasing the overall ATMs at HKIA. As opposed to 66,000 freighter ATMs carrying 8.9 million tonnes that were forecast in the NAMP, IATA Consulting estimates that 108,000 freighter ATMs would be required. recommended practices and other relevant factors such as the traffic mix at HKIA. Accordingly, two runways operating completely independently should theoretically deliver 88 ATMs per hour (44 ATMs x 2). However, in reality, this is rarely the case. Due to different constraints, none of the runway capacity currently declared by airports in the region with two runways could reach this theoretical maximum. arrivals). The Civil Aviation Department (CAD) has gradually increased the declared runway capacity from 40 in 1999 to 61 in 2011. The length of time taken is to allow sufficient time for CAD to familiarise its air traffic controllers with dual runway operations and gradually build up its air traffic control capacity. In order to establish the practical maximum capacity of HKIA’s two-runway system, National Air Traffic Services (NATS), a leading provider of air traffic management services based in the United Kingdom, was commissioned to study and identify measures required to further raise HKIA’s runway capacity against different possible modes of operation including – • Segregated operation – one runway exclusively for departures and the other runway exclusively for arrivals; THEORETICAL RUNWAY CAPACITY OF THE TWORUNWAY SYSTEM Under a completely unconstrained environment and operating under a “Mixed Mode” (i.e. allowing both landing and take-off), a runway can deliver a maximum of 44 ATMs per hour8, based on International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) PRACTICAL MAXIMUM RUNWAY CAPACITY OF HKIA HKIA started with a single runway operation (South Runway) with 34 ATMs per hour at the airport opening in 1998. Since the opening of the second runway (North Runway) in 1999, the dual runway system has been operating under a Segregated Mode (i.e. South Runway dedicated to departures and North Runway to 8 There can be 3,600sec (seconds) ÷ 167sec = 21.56 ≈ 22 cycles (i.e. 22 pairs of landing and take-off) per hour, thus 44 movements per hour. HKIA MASTER PLAN 2030 23