Hong Kong to raise HK$10 billion through bonds for ‘landmark’ Airport City project

Fred Lam, the Airport Authority’s chairman, says project not just a ‘bus stop’ but one to drive tourists to Hong Kong

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The Airport City project includes 11 SKIES, an integrated retail, dining and entertainment complex scheduled to open in phases from the second half of 2025. Photo: Jelly Tse

Cannix Yau

Published: 11:21pm, 24 Oct 2024Updated: 2:27pm, 25 Oct 2024

Corrected [2:27pm, 25 Oct, 2024]

[2:27pm, 25 Oct, 2024]
This story has been updated to reflect the driverless autonomous vehicles that will serve an area within the Airport City Project can carry 8,000 people per hour.

Hong Kong’s Airport Authority will issue up to HK$10 billion (US$1.3 billion) worth of bonds early next year for a project billed as a “landmark of Asia” and a new engine of economic growth for the Greater Bay Area.

Fred Lam Tin-fuk, the authority’s chairman, said on Thursday that the government was also considering earmarking a site as part of the Airport City project’s expansion, equivalent to the distance between Harbour City shopping centre and K11 Musea in Tsim Sha Tsui.

“We are not just a bus stop,” Lam said. “We will drive tourists into the city through the airport.”

Prominent features within the project include a 600-berth yacht club, a seafood market said to rival Tokyo’s Tsukiji Fish Market and the city’s first-of-its-kind, purpose-built large-scale storage facility for artwork.

An area within the Airport City project will also be served by driverless autonomous vehicles, which can carry 8,000 people per hour.

Lam added that HK$8 billion to HK$10 billion worth of bonds would be issued in the first quarter of next year to fund the project, which was worth tens of billions of dollars over various stages and would be completed from 2026 to 2031.