News
HKIA continues expansion and attracts controversy
April 15th 2016
Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) last week officially opened its new Midfield Concourse (MFC). The 105,000-square-metre, five-storey building provides 20 parking positions. Read More » It handles about 230 flights from 30 carriers a day, or approximately 20% of HKIA’s daily passenger flights. It is expected to increase HKIA’s capacity by ten million passengers annually, but is projected to handle double that number as the airport adds another 34 parking stands, at a cost of HK$5 billion ($645 million), in the next four years.
HKIA will reach its design capacity by year-end with the third HK$141.5 billion ($18.26 billion) runway not operational until 2023, according to the latest plans.
HKIA and its associated contractors have been involved in controversy in the past two weeks. The first incident involved a British passenger, Marco Bulmer-Rizzi, who claims that his late partner’s ashes were seized by HKIA’s appointed security firm, Avesco, because they did not recognise his same-sex marriage when he passed through the city while travelling to Europe from Australia.
Avesco said it has no record of the incident, but pledged to investigate. "I think it is very likely a misunderstanding. Like how sometimes there is a language barrier between officers and passengers," a spokesman for the security firm told the South China Morning Post. "We need to conduct an investigation into what really happened. But according to our records, […], we cannot identify the incident ... and cannot prove anything," he said.
Bulmer-Rizzi is no stranger to dispute. He earlier made headlines after Australia refused to recognise the couple's same-sex marriage, which meant the death certificate said his partner David was never married. The premier of South Australia later apologized and said he would seek to change the law.
