Vivian Cheung Kar-fay, the acting chief executive officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, is on Straight Talk this week.

Cheung talks about how the Hong Kong airport is becoming an Airport City with its Skytopia brand, and how it's applying technology to turn most operations autonomous and its many more future developments.

Check out the full transcript of TVB’s Straight Talk host Dr Eugene Chan’s interview with Vivian Cheung:

Chan: Good evening. This is Eugene Chan. This week on Straight Talk, we are joined by Vivian Cheung Kar-fay, the acting chief executive officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong. With over 30 years of experience in airport management, Cheung has held key leadership roles since joining the AAHK in 1992. She's also chief operating officer of the Airport Authority, director of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai Airport Management Company, and vice chairman of the Shanghai Hong Kong Airport Management Corporation. We have invited her to share her insights into the exciting Airport City project, which has been making headlines recently. Welcome, Vivian!

Cheung: Thank you, Eugene, for inviting me here.

Chan: Vivian, I think, to many viewers, the Hong Kong airport is a very, very special place. We go out for holidays. We go for … I remember when ... in our student days, we go away for a few years and come back and see our parents – a very emotional place, and it has been very special. So, we just had our Chinese New Year holidays, and there have been a lot of people coming in and out. How would you prepare in a way that everybody has such a pleasant experience?

Cheung: That's always the most important thing in our heart. By the way, we just have another peak during the New Year holidays, and that actually exceeds all the numbers during pandemic and post pandemic. So, we are glad that the traffic is recovering. This airport was built 25 years ago, and a lot of areas have already hit capacity. So, preparing for all these peak seasons, we do have to pull out efforts making sure all the choke points have enough capacity, enough people, and making sure you know all ... you know, a lot of operators in the frontline are not taking holiday.

Chan: Right.

Cheung: They're taking shift to making sure that we have enough manpower to take care of everyone.

Chan: Right, I remember. I mean, during the shows, during the COVID time, we were seeing the recovery of Hong Kong, and then we use air travel as a sort of KPI of Hong Kong recovery. Are you happy with what has been happening? I think we are nearly close to the pre-COVID level in terms of passengers.

Cheung: Yes, we are, especially the aircraft movement. However, we see that as aircraft movement has already reached pre-pandemic numbers, long haul still has not yet come back, 100 percent. More recovery, and also new routes in the short-haul area, we're seeing a lot of new airlines and new routes developed surrounding us. Last year, we put together a program to encourage new routes and new frequencies and also new airlines to join Hong Kong, and we saw a pretty good result. So, we have seen more than 20 airlines establish more than 50 new destinations, and it represents about 240 frequencies each week. So, that's all good news for Hong Kong.

Chan: Right. Has it got to do with our third runway that has been operational, although since last November?

Cheung: It definitely has something to do with it because the third runway will be able to add another 50 percent capacity, although that total number has not exceeded pre-pandemic. But during peak hours, it's a lot more flexible. We can add more flights during peak hours. As you know, that peak hours mean, in the morning or in the afternoon, where a lot of airlines will operate during that time and transfer in our airport, providing more slots during those peak hours that enable us to attract more airlines to come to Hong Kong.

Chan: Right. Vivian, I'm sure some of the viewers like myself, who have been to the airport in the last, say, 12 months, have seen a drastic difference. Initially, not a lot of people, and it looks like a very deserted airport, and now when you go to the airport it is very, very packed. But how can you make such a packed airport? People sort of work through very quickly. I just went to Canada last weekend, and I remember that as soon as I got into the restricted area, I hardly had to take out any of my air ticket, any of my passport, and just walk through one after another in actually quite a short time. How do you ensure that, especially when we have more people traveling through now?

Cheung: I'm really glad you asked that question. In Hong Kong, we have a small land, most important to us is efficiency. This airport, compared to many other newly built airports, in fact, the size is not that big to entertain 75 million passengers, that was a number before the pandemic. So, we have to use technology to make sure that and also improve our process to make sure that we are more efficient. Hong Kong actually is already well-known in its efficiency, and our staff are all very keen to make sure that everything completes in a very short while. For example, we set a standard for our security process to be 4.5 minutes.

Chan: Really?

Cheung: Yes, so we continue to measure that if we ... when we see that it's a longer queue, then we're making sure that there will be more people, more service provided, to ensure that the queue will be less. We will not allow that queue to be longer than that. However, sometimes we do see a queue longer than what we expected. So, we will continue to do improvement, and to, for example, add more facilities, to enlarge the area, to make sure that we can cope with the future growth. And talk about using technology. For example, you see the new security machine where people don't have to take out their liquid anymore. It means that people can pass through faster. And you can also see that we put together our new technology, using face as a ticket, as a token that can go through check-in security, immigration all the way to boarding without taking out your boarding pass, and that also reduces the time that you have to go through all the process. And only by doing that, you know, we can actually make sure that people are happy going through, and by the way, you know, happy people will spend more money. So, we let them go through faster in all the channels. When they reach the air side, they have more time, they might be willing to buy more, buy a cup of coffee or buy some souvenir before they board their plane.

Chan: You know, I have been encouraged to spend over HK$10,000 recently on my recent trip, because you get free tickets, don't you?

Cheung: Yes, yes, and you know, during the pandemic, we bought a lot of tickets from airlines, and now we are recovering, we're taking all those tickets as well the reward to the passengers who shop in our airports we get, we got a lot of good feedback on that.

Chan: Right. I mean, I've been talking to your team, and I've been very encouraged by some of the figures I got. I was asking them when we could come back to Hong Kong. I mean, like, if you've been out for a long trip, you're tired, you want to get home as soon as possible. It doesn't take very long for the luggage to be back on the actual luggage area, reclaim area. How do you ensure that efficiency? I heard that it was like 20 minutes to have the first luggage and 40 minutes when the last few luggage would arrive. That's impressive. How do you do that?

Cheung: That's also another area that we put a lot of effort on. Some people probably remember that before the pandemic, we had some shortage of manpower issues, and actually during recovery, we also had that sort of issue. Now that so ... since 2019 we've been working on autonomous vehicles to carry luggage to our luggage baggage hall, and it has been very successful, helping us to move the luggage from the airplane side all the way to our luggage hall, and helping us to reduce the reliance on manpower. Also making sure of this speedy delivery. And talk about autonomous vehicles, you can give me some time that I would like to actually proudly introduce this technology, because this is the first ever in all airports to use autonomous vehicles in operation. And back in 2019 you know, we cannot find any product that can help us, you know, achieve our goal, so we engage one of the companies in Beijing and help us to deliver that technology. And since then, not only that we'll put the autonomous vehicle in to take the luggage from airplane site to the luggage hall. We also take cargos, and then two years later, we actually implement our patrol car. So, you know, we can really rely on those autonomous vehicles. It's very safe, reliable. They don't get sick, and then they also are very on time, even during bad weather. And so they do patrolling. And then two years later, we also have implemented an autonomous vehicle to take our staff from one part of the apron to another part of the apron, right? And you're going to see very soon, this year, we will have autonomous vehicles also on the land side and take people from across the border to our Sky City. And another few years later, you're going to see autonomous vehicles from our airport all the way to Tung Chung. So, we're fully committed to this new technology, which will help us to be even more efficient.

Chan: Right, Vivian. Let's take a short break now but viewers, stay with us. We will be right back.

Chan: Thank you for staying with us. Vivian Cheung, the acting chief executive officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong, has been sharing with us the plans to transform our city airport to be an Airport City, a comprehensive landmark destination attracting tourists from Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area, and the rest of the world. So, Vivian, we didn't quite get to that, but I know that is something that you want to talk and share with the viewers with your plans. But before we go to that, I know that the Hong Kong airport has been receiving many, many prizes. I think over 100 prizes in the last few years. How much more can we improve? And especially with a third runway, do you see Hong Kong really to be even more special than other airports?

Cheung: Yes, now we have the quantity, I think that it is very important how we also upgrade our quality. So, not just providing airport, not just providing a space for people to board an airplane and get off the airplane, we think that people can also spend more time in our airport. And that is why we want to establish our airport to become an Airport City. And not only that, also look at our location. Nearby, we are in the center of the GBA, Greater Bay Area, and where there is 87 million people live here. And the GDP in 2023 was $1.9 trillion. And we are so close to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge. In fact, we are right at the bridgehead. And there are so many things we can capture and then further develop. So, we just have recently unveiled our new brand called Skytopia. And where that is part of our Airport City to develop even more attraction to attract people from air, by land, or within Hong Kong.

Chan: Right. Let me ask you, what does the word Skytopia mean? I think there is some meaning to it.

Cheung: Yes, Skytopia is actually three words put together: Sky, Top, and IA. So, Sky, of course, we are aviation, involving sky, business of the sky. And then Top, this is an area that we committed to provide top line of services and top line of activity, entertainment. And then IA is international airport. So, it’s Skytopia.

Chan: Right. Vivian, somebody call this as a landmark of Asia. Before you tell us more about this Skytopia, how is this going to make Hong Kong's economic development in a better position than where we are today?

Cheung: Yes, we always think that the airport, Hong Kong airport, is one of the very important engines for Hong Kong and Greater Bay Area's economic development, and we think that we can do even more to contribute in that. I mentioned about our location, and then also if you look at our surrounding with water, and actually right at the bridgehead. We want to put all these resources together to find, to develop an even more attractive activity or development to attract more people. Now we are also looking to Hong Kong's strengths. Hong Kong's strengths, for example, Hong Kong is a free port, almost no tax. And Hong Kong, one of the things we want to develop is a hub to create an ecosystem in and surrounding our airport, utilizing Hong Kong's low tax, free trade. And in the background of Hong Kong right now, Hong Kong is the number two in the first-hand art trading in the world, just second to New York. And we can definitely pull all the strings in Hong Kong and make it number one. So, that is something we want to do. And Hong Kong Airport is a great location that, near to airside we are going to create art storage, where people can put their valuable arts in our storage, and with land side and air side access. So, people, when transfer to our airport, they can come and go look at the arts. And then we are going to create a galleries of gallery, a real hub. Compared to New York where that there is more than 1,400 of galleries, Hong Kong has about 60-70. We definitely think that there is opportunity to add more. I think Hong Kong needs to stimulate an industry for people to appreciate … create, appreciate, and trade art. We have that potential in this area of the airport.

Chan: Vivian, we have been listening regularly from our leaders in Beijing, and even Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu, that Hong Kong needs to reinvent ourselves so that we can be more special, more in the niche. And looks like Skytopia is something that is doing that. I know that you are also using the yacht facilities as well. So, basically in all aspects. One very direct question at Straight Talk, I have got to be very … I won't say very direct, is while you are putting all the good things at the airport, what about the rest of Hong Kong? Are we going to put all the customers all at the airport, but not to the other parts of Hong Kong? How do you ensure that the Hong Kong will do better as a whole, not just the airport?

Cheung: Oh, Hong Kong is the window, I mean Hong Kong Airport is the window to Hong Kong, and window to Greater Bay Area. And definitely that we are going to ensure that we work with the industry. And in fact, I have been meeting the industry already, see how we can work together. Take example that for the 75 million of passengers every year going through our Hong Kong Airport, 30 percent of them are transfer passengers.

Chan: Oh, I see.

Cheung: And with the attraction right next to the airport, we want to attract them to come out, not just transfer inside the airport. They can spend time outside the airport.

Chan: Right.

Cheung: And our transfer passenger is from 2 hours to 12 hours. Of course, average is about 4 to 6 hours. And if they can, you know, we can facilitate them not only go to Skytopia, they can also go to Lantau Island.

Chan: Right.

Cheung: We have Disneyland, and by looking at our hub, they are very interested in art development in Hong Kong. We can also introduce them to M+, and also many of the galleries in downtown. So, definitely we are just a window to all of the great things in Hong Kong.

Chan: Right, I see. And I think that I am sure the viewers are going to ask you will be, with such a big project, I know it is going to take a few years. And I read that the cost of it is nearly about HK$100 billion, it is a lot of money. While the Airport Authority is responsible for HK$30 billion, the rest you will be raising it with the investors. How has that been going? And how attractive is it to investors?

Cheung: We have just unveiled our brand last week. In fact, there was 300 guests that came over to visit our event. And the feedback so far is pretty good.

Chan: Right.

Cheung: In fact, you talk about marina, we already have several leads that are really interested to work with us. Marina … that is something that also we should capture Hong Kong's strengths. We have a great harbor here, and we have a very calm sea, very near to our airport. And we will be able to develop an area that was a 600 berth places for the yachts to come from Southeast Asia and GBA. And talk about investment. Yes, about HK$30 billion is going to be invested by us. Those including infrastructure and Asia World Expo Phase 2, you probably heard about it. And I just talked about autonomous vehicle.

Chan: Right.

Cheung: And pretty soon you are going to see two autonomous automated car park, allowing people drive through Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge and park in the bridge front, either they transfer through our airport or land in Hong Kong. Another 70 billion, yes, we are working with the investor. I think this is what Hong Kong wants to see, right? Not just we invest in it, we want to attract specialized companies, specializing different sectors of business to come to Hong Kong, to invest in Hong Kong. And that is what I want to do, yeah.

Chan: Right. So, Vivian, we have talked about the passenger side of things, we talked about the Skytopia. One area that I want to just touch on very briefly at the end part of our show is about cargo. We had the Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Chief Executive Wilson Kwong here on the show recently. And he told us how important that Hong Kong has been benefitted of being the world's busiest cargo hub. How is the airport authority going to continue to support this? Because I know that we are facing a bit of competition from the GBA. What are we going to do to ensure we maintain this important position for Hong Kong?

Cheung: There is a very important strategy we have developed and will continue going to use this strategy, and create many projects to support this industry. This strategy includes, you mentioned about GBA, we want to make sure that we are still the most important gateway for GBA, in terms of cargo. Right now, in fact 75 percent of international cargo within GBA are all shipped through Hong Kong. Hong Kong do have the advantage of its efficiency. And adding to that, we are also adding facility in Dongguan to continue to support this efficiency. And also, secondly, we want to make sure that our e-commerce has been stronger than before. We have encouraged investors such as UPS, DHL, and also Cainiao. They all have established or expanded their facility to make sure that they can support e-commerce. And that it is that we are actually making sure our entire facility can facilitate very special cargo. We are the first airport to gain IATA … the full suite of IATA certification in special cargo handling. This including like temperature control, live animals, and fresh produce ...

Chan: You mentioned that last time, yes.

Cheung: … so that those are very important to us, right? And the last one is digitalization. We put a platform together and enable and facilitate all the partners can use that platform and promote their cargo.

Chan: Right. Vivian, thank you very much and that is all the time we have it. And thank you for giving us a glimpse into this exciting development at the Hong Kong International Airport. These projects promise to make the airport not just a transit point, but a destination in itself, and will certainly redefine Hong Kong's place as a global hub. Thank you for joining us and have a good evening!