“We want to issue the retail bonds to give Hong Kong residents a chance to participate in the third runway project,” Julien Lee, executive director of finance at AAHK, said at a media briefing on Friday.
The third runway will allow the Hong Kong airport to handle an extra 30 million passengers each year, which will strengthen its status as an aviation hub. When the airport authority announced a finance plan in 2016, the government decided not to use tax payers’ money so that it would not need the approval of the city’s Legislative Council.
Instead, the AAHK added charges for airlines and introduced a levy of HK$180 each to be paid by departing passengers. It also decided to use its own savings, bank loans and bond issuances to finance the mega project.
