oldchinahand

With the airport expansion is finishing in 2025 there will be two distinct terminals and some 40 new gates located adjacent to the new third runway.
This new gate concourse will be connected to terminal ‘2’ by an extension of the current train and moving conveyer systems that have been a feature for some years.

This expansion will finally allow Cathay room to expand at the airport and its lounge offerings will be expanded also with two new flagship lounges in the design stages and a new arrivals lounge being also very likely.

Both Hong Kong and the airport traffic are recovering fast with at least seven new airlines using the airport with now almost all of the pre Covid airlines back also.

Good to see KLM back next month and also American joining United daily to HK with Qantas now flying its A380 and most of the European airlines again using their larger aircraft.

After those three tough years it is good to see Hong Kong moving forward at a pace.

brunos

Sorry, but KL has kept flying during the pandemic, albeit with reduced frequency.
Many European airlines (except AY and BA) still have reduced frequency compared to pre-covid and none are using their larger airplanes.

boybi

Will CX put lounges in the new terminal? Or will they only exclusively use the current terminals?

djsflynn

They'll be in T1, after other airlines are reassigned to T2.

(See https://www.executivetraveller.com/n...rrivals-lounge)

Oh and also, while I was keen to see if CX might open a small Deck-style lounge in the T1 satellite terminal, there were no indications of that, as CX says it's aiming to utilise as many T1 gates as possible. A bit of a shame because I was recently on a HKG-BKK flight which departed from the satellite terminal and I definitely would have liked to spend time in a small Deck-style lounge in the satellite, being so much closer to the gates.

oldchinahand

KLM has not flow passengers to HK for some time as you will see if you access their recent announcement Bronos
Almost all major airlines are still operating reduced frequencies to most destinations with many still operating at 80% or less of the pre covid time tables. I read last week that SIA was at about 80% and Qantas less. BTW BA are back at 2 daily flights to Hong Kong

djsflynn

Alas, Qantas' SYD-HKG A380 is just a short-term thing and not as much based on raw HKG demand as for the fact that the restart of MEL-HKG has been pushed back, so QF rolled out a 'spare' A380 to cater for combined SYD+MEL traffic... once MEL-HKG restarts, the SYD service goes back to an A330. A bit of a shame as I recall when the A380 was regularly rostered onto SYD-HKG to cater for high demand across the Aussie summer holidays to CNY period (and a bit beyond), and it was a great way to do this route!

brunos

I can assure you that KL was flying during covid, once weekly then twice weekly. They are now 3 times weekly.
The only difference is that they had a stopover in BKK for crew change, with the same plane and flight number (they could not board pax BKK-HKG). The same crew was doing BKK-HKG-BKK.
The difference is that they now removed that stopover as crew are not subject to test on arrival and quarantine anymore.

Ba is indeed operating 2 daily flights now (CX 4 or 5), but they are using small planes (A350/787) while they used to have 1 A380 and 1 77W.

brunos

I am a bit confused by the article.
In the old configuration, there was 2 terminals in terms of check-in counters, T1 and T2. I understand that T2 has been removed. But what about the T2 gates that were reached by train (second stop after T1). For example, there was a HX lounge there?
Then there was the Satellite, often referred to as KA island. My understanding is that it is still operational and linked by a walking bridge. I had a CX flight arriving there.

In the new configuration, my understanding is that there will be a new T2 with check-in counters. As asked before, will the airlines at new T2 use gates in the old T2 gates, T1 gates or will the North concourse be operational?

lsquare

I'm also confused. My understanding is that HKG has two terminals. So with a new terminal, is that going to be called T3? Is the entire airport going to change and the gates be renamed? It does sound like exciting times if the airport and lounge experience improves.

oldchinahand

Terminals - the old terminal 2 was a casualty of Covid closures and the airport expansion

oldchinahand

Bronos During Covid any KLM flight if there were any would have been carrying freight of course as no paxs to carry

djsflynn

The T1 Satellite is indeed now linked by a 'Skybridge' which is pretty cool (and has a great observation deck) and you can watch aircraft taxi right beneath it. There are indeed still some CX flights there – I was on a recent BKK service which used the Satellite terminal – but CX tells me it's aiming to minimise use of the satellite terminal.

Meanwhile T2 is being rebuilt with plans to reopen in 2024, and according to HKG will have its own concourse and gates – see the pic below, supplied by HKG.

oldchinahand

Perhaps a minor point it is my understanding is that the above described Terminal 2 is a NEW terminal rather than a rehash of the old one.

sbs2716g

KLM have been carrying paxes during covid.

and they have been suspended many times during covid due to the stupid rules by HKG govt.

djsflynn

Perhaps more a matter of terminology than anything else - it is indeed a new terminal, but by the same token it can be considered as being 'rebuilt' in that it was demolished and is being built again... maybe we should borrow a page from Hollywood and say that T2 is being 'rebooted' LOL

(Actually and FWIW, some articles note "the T2 Expansion project has reused structures of the existing building as far as practicable".)