Page 21 - Demo

HKIA, located at the reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok, plays a vital role in Hong Kong’s logistics industry. It has been the world's busiest cargo airport since 2010, transporting a total of 4.8 million tonnes of air cargo and mail in 2019. It is also ranked second in Asia in terms of airport connectivity, reaching 220 destinations with 120 airlines. Since 2017, HKIA has been recognised by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as a Partner Airport of IATA’s Center of Excellence for Independent Validators in Pharmaceutical Logistics (IATA CEIV Pharma) and Center of Excellence for Perishable Logistics (IATA CEIV Fresh). All three cargo terminal handlers in HKIA are members of Cargo iQ, a not-for-profit membership group supported by IATA, proving their capability in process control, quality monitoring and service level.All these recognitions validate HKIA’s capability in air cargo handling, especially in terms of achieving consistent cold-chain management standards. This is crucial for maintaining the product integrity of temperature-sensitive cargo such as pharmaceuticals and high-value groceries, which provide growth potential for Hong Kong’s future airfreight business. In terms of handling pharmaceuticals, HKIA is a strategic airport member of Pharma.Aero, a cross-industry collaboration platform that includes pharma-shippers, certified cargo handlers and airport operators. Under the framework of Pharma.Aero, HKIA announced the launch of an airport-to-airport pharma corridor with Brussels Airport, offering services catering to the specific needs of pharmaceutical shipments between the two cities.Another key advantage of HKIA is its well-established inter-modal transportation infrastructure that enables the seamless transfer of goods between airplanes and bonded trucks, which makes transhipments to and from cities in mainland China effortless (Figure 8).19