Airport arrivals in Hong Kong to wait in new rest zones and get snacks, water if public transport suspended in bad weather
- More than 500 chairs will be available at departure hall, with each seat prepared with supply kit containing pack of crackers, bottle of water and blanket
- Airport Authority says it will implement new ticketing system if demand and supply of taxis were unbalanced due to bad weather
Travellers arriving at Hong Kong airport will be able to wait in new rest areas packed with snacks, water and phone-charging services during adverse weather events that cut off public transport.
Typhoon Koinu, which hit the city last September, forced the suspension of the express train service, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded at the airport’s taxi rank for as long as eight hours.
The Airport Authority on Thursday said it would implement a new ticketing system if the demand and supply of taxis were unbalanced due to bad weather to prevent passengers from queuing for a long time.
“There is a chance that the taxi queuing system will be activated when the No 8 typhoon signal or the black rainstorm warning is issued,” Steven Yiu Siu-chung, the authority’s executive director of airport operations, said.
“We will inform passengers and contact the airline throughout the entire process.
“Before a plane lands, we will explain to passengers that airport traffic has been reduced due to bad weather and that they will have to get a ticket if they want to get a cab.”
Yiu, however, said the new system did not guarantee a stable supply of taxis during extreme weather.
The authority said that in case of typhoons, inbound travellers would first see signs located at the baggage reclaim area about the need to get a ticket before approaching the taxi rank.
Passengers could get a ticket at one of the kiosks in the arrivals hall or by downloading the Gulu queuing and reservation smartphone app.
Yiu said access to the taxi rank would also be barred to prevent travellers from rushing to the area.
More than 500 chairs would be available at the departure hall, with each seat prepared with a supply kit containing a pack of crackers, a bottle of water and a blanket, he added.
Stranded passengers would be allowed to use locker cabinets with phone-recharging services located near the chairs.
Yiu said the number of chairs could be increased to 1,000 when necessary.
He also announced a year-long project to upgrade the airport’s driverless people mover system, which runs in two segments within Terminal One and the Midfield Concourse.
Starting this July, the mover system will stop service two hours earlier at 11pm.
Last September, Typhoon Koinu, named after the constellation of Canis Minor in Japanese, prompted the Airport Express to abruptly suspend services into the city centre after the Observatory upgraded the typhoon signal from No 8 to No 9 with only 15 minutes’ advance notice.
With taxis being the only means of public transport then, long queues formed at cab stands, stretching all the way from outside the airport into the arrivals hall.
At the time, the authority and Civil Aviation Department pledged to optimise the flight reallocation mechanism during typhoons to handle the flow of people stranded at the airport more effectively.
