OPTION 2: THREE-RUNWAY SYSTEM THE NEED FOR A THIRD RUNWAY The fundamental basis of airport capacity is air traffic movements (ATMs, also known as flight movements). While we could continue to invest in and expand Hong Kong International Airport’s (HKIA’s) terminals and their ancillary support facilities, the runway capacity puts a cap on the ultimate throughput of the airport. Under Option 1, we have explored the practical maximum handling capacity of HKIA under its existing two-runway system. Without a third runway, HKIA can only accommodate an annual maximum of 420,000 ATMs and will reach its runway capacity sometime between 2019 and 2022. To truly handle unconstrained demand up to 2030 (which is forecast to be 97 million passengers and 8.9 million tonnes of cargo) and possibly beyond, HKIA needs to build a third runway. 32