Hong Kong an aviation hub for Greater Bay Area and markets beyond: Airport Authority chief The Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is poised to serve as a major infrastructure for the Greater Bay Area (GBA) and markets beyond, as a fresh surge of Chinese companies moves to expand globally over the next decade, according to the head of the city’s Airport Authority. “We mustn’t see the HKIA just as an airport for Hong Kong,” said Fred Lam Tin-fuk, Airport Authority chairman, in a speech at the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Business Summit 2025 on Tuesday. “We very much see it as a very important international airport for the GBA and beyond.” “In the next 10 years, my prediction is that we are going to see a new wave of mainland companies coming out to do international investments around the world using Hong Kong as a platform,” Lam said, adding that the central government would likely encourage more enterprises to establish overseas operations amid recent geopolitical developments. Citing the “one country, two systems” principle, Lam pointed out that Hong Kong remained “the most international city of China” and that “many of the opportunities that we have in Hong Kong are all connected to this very important aspect”. These opportunities include tertiary education and wealth management. His assessment reflected the Hong Kong government’s commitment to ensure the city status as a centre of international and regional aviation under the Basic Law, the city’s mini-constitution. According to Lam, the HKIA has continued to expand its infrastructure to strengthen regional connectivity, including ferry services to nine GBA ports that allow passengers to reach the airport directly without passing through Hong Kong immigration. The airport’s third runway went into full operation late last year. This is expected to raise the airport’s passenger throughput capacity in phases by 50 per cent to 120 million annually by 2035. The HKIA now has a network of about 140 airlines connecting to over 200 destinations worldwide. “Now that we have the additional capacity, we are going to make full use of the traffic rights to bring in more airlines and also to establish more destinations for Hong Kong,” Lam said. Hong Kong and Macau are the only two cities in China to have their own traffic rights. “Hong Kong aims to stay a global aviation hub. And for it to do so, it will need to make sure that it has access to sustainable aviation fuel,” said Mark Harper, group head of sustainability at John Swire & Sons (HK), a key shareholder of Hong Kong’s flagship airline Cathay Pacific. Cathay Pacific has already committed to using sustainable aviation fuel for 10 per cent of its total fuel consumption by 2030. “That kind of regulatory and incentive mandate is vital because sustainable aviation fuel currently can be between two and eight times more expensive than standard jet fuel,” Harper said. At a panel discussion in the business summit, Standard Chartered chief sustainability officer Marisa Drew said Hong Kong was “in a great position to leverage itself as a finance hub”. Drew added that the city was also working to become a regional leader in the area of adaptation finance – referring to raising capital to help natural and human systems adjust to the effects of climate change and reduce its negative impacts. She also noted that environmental movements and capital flows addressing mitigation issues had dominated headlines, with more than 90 per cent of climate finance initiatives responding to those developments. In a separate event, the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) on Tuesday launched a global campaign to promote Hong Kong as an international financial centre. “Hong Kong shapes capital flows in ways no other financial centres can,” said Benjamin Hung, chairman of the FSDC. “For decades, the city has been the world’s premier financial marketplace, where businesses find capital connectivity seamless.” The FSDC has released four videos on YouTube and LinkedIn as part of its new global campaign that targets markets including the US, the UK and the Middle East. The themes of the video series cover: “where money comes to grow”; “where ambition finds funding”; “where success works hard and plays harder”; and “where rules protect and empower capital”. https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3329792/hong-kong-aviation-hub-greater-bay-area-and-markets-beyond-airport-authority-chief (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post