Does the opening of Hong Kong’s new SkyPier herald the start of a new era for water connections at Asia-Pacific airports? Robin Stone investigates.

Snaking its way 1,400 miles through southern China, the Pearl River ends its journey when it flows into the South China Sea between Hong Kong and Macau.

Its famous delta has become one of the top manufacturing regions in Asia, ever since the Chinese government’s adoption of a more liberal economic policy in 1979 heralded a surge in foreign investment.

Today, the Pearl River Delta’s manufacturing portfolio of textiles, toys, electronics and brewing accounts for a staggering 5% of all goods produced worldwide.

But while the remarkable economic growth of China, India and Japan has been reflected in the scramble for route rights among leading Western carriers, the expansion of international transport links in the wider Pacific Rim has not been confined to the air.

The opening in mid-January of Hong Kong International Airport’s (HKIA’s) much-vaunted SkyPier, a new cross-boundary ferry terminal, which represented an investment by the airport authority of around HK$1 billion, is a classic example.

Operated by a joint venture company, the Hong Kong International Airport Ferry Terminal Services Limited, SkyPier enables passengers travelling between the former British colony and the Pearl River Delta to bypass local customs and immigration
control, trimming travel times and smoothing air-to-sea or sea-to-air transfers.

And to serve as a reminder that many airports around the world serve as multi-modal transport hubs – flying people in by air and sending them on their onward journey by water, and vice-versa – HKIA combined the SkyPier launch with the official opening of its north satellite concourse.

“The new SkyPier and north satellite concourse are part of HKIA’s growth projects to enhance service levels and meet future demand,” says Dr Marvin Cheung Kin-tung, chairman of the Airport Authority Hong Kong.

“The SkyPier efficiently conveys passengers travelling between the Pearl River Delta and the world via HKIA, while the North Satellite Concourse enables about 98% of our passengers to embark and disembark airplanes in an indoor, weatherproof environment.”

Strong demand for cross-boundary transport saw a temporary SkyPier established in 2003 to facilitate passenger flow between HKIA and the Pearl River Delta (PRD). Today, eight ferry routes are split between two operators – TurboJet and the Chu Kong Passenger Transport Company – whose high-speed ferries make an average of 90 trips every day.

They shuttle around 6,000 passengers between Hong Kong airport and six PRD ports – Zhongshan, Zhuhai Jiuzhou, Dongguan Humen, Guangzhou Nansha, Shenzhen Shekou and Shenzhen Fuyong – as well as Macau’s Taipai and Maritime Ferry Terminal.

Passengers heading overseas via SkyPier are exempt from the HK$120 airport departure tax. In addition, upstream check-in services at major SkyPier ports, allows passengers to obtain boarding passes and check in luggage, simplifying the ferry crossing to the airport.

The temporary SkyPier served nearly 10 million passengers in its seven years of operation. By contrast, the new facility, which began with the construction of a permanent pier on the eastern tip of the island in 2006, can handle up to eight million passengers in a single year.

Its 16,500sqm dwarf the old pier by a ratio of eight to one, and it boasts 20 airline check-in desks and five security screening channels; both can be expanded to meet growing demand.

The airport’s automated people mover system has now been extended to the SkyPier, halving the time for passengers transferring between the ferry pier and Terminal 1 to about four minutes.

But while SkyPier has attracted most of the attention among ‘maritime’ airports in the Asia-Pacific region, other countries miles removed from Hong Kong and China have not been slow to embrace the ferry sector.

Japan, where island airports such as Kobe and Nagoya require speedy links with the mainland, is a prime example. Kobe and Kansai airports are linked by a high-speed ferry service every 45 minutes across Kanku Bay. Run by Kaijo Access since July 2007, the service brings Kansai and Kobe within half an hour’s reach of each other.

It’s a vitally important link. Kobe – still relatively new in airport terms, having opened just four years ago – operates principally domestic flights, but is also geared up to handle international charters, so large numbers of leisure passengers can now be literally ferried between the two airports.

A shuttle bus service linking Kansai with the ferry terminal picks passengers up outside first-floor arrivals, and drops them off around eight minutes later. Ferry tickets can be bought for 1,500 yen (children half-price) at a dedicated counter at the northern end of the passenger terminal building. Buses are timed to match all ferry sailings.

Nagoya’s Central Japan International Airport – Japan’s third maritime gateway after Nagasaki and Kansai – is also well served by ferries.

Located on an artificial island in Ise Bay 35km south of Nagoya, the airport is the main international gateway for the Chubu (“central”) region of Japan. Three high-speed ferry services link the airport to Tsu, Matsusaka and Toba, with an automated people mover connecting ferry port with passenger terminal.

Hong Kong’s SkyPier is unique in that it was purpose-built by the airport to facilitate ferry crossings, but those airports not in that envious position are generally well served by specialist transfer operators.

Brisbane’s BCT, for example, services all airport and cruise ship terminals in Perth, Sydney and south-east Queensland.

The company, which has been operating since 1999, transfers more than 5,000 passengers every month, and offers them a ‘meet and greet’ service, plus assistance with their luggage. Customers can even watch a DVD during their journey.

In 2008, BCT became the first airport transfer franchise in Australia. It is in the process of expanding across Australia and into both the north and south islands of New Zealand.

The Tasmanian Tour Company offers two services to and from the island’s Devonport Airport and the ferry terminal. Devonport is the home-port of the two luxury Spirit of Tasmania passenger ferries which sail nightly to Melbourne, increasing to double frequency during peak periods.

And was it purely coincidence that Sealink opened a state-of-the-art ferry terminal at Cape Jervis hard on the heels of Adelaide Airport’s new passenger terminal just over four years ago? No, according to the South Australian tourism minister, Dr Jane Lomax-Smith, who insisted that the dual openings combined to provide “another important boost for the South Australian tourism industry,” making the state’s top tourist attractions such as Kangaroo Island more accessible than ever before.

With travellers becoming ever-more adventurous, the multi-modal travel sector is flourishing, and many airports are getting in on the act by selling ferry and train tickets. Using the Airport Link rail network, travellers heading for Manly, for example, can buy a combined ferry-train ticket at Sydney airport’s domestic terminal.

For the passenger, of course, this integration of different transportation modes across international boundaries can only be of benefit, so it’s worth returning to Hong Kong’s SkyPier to see how it can work in practice.

Check-in for flights to Japan is now available at both Shenzhen and Macau, which means, for instance, that a business traveller taking an ANA flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo can check-in at either ferry port and not see his baggage again until he walks into the reclaim hall at Narita.

From a temporary terminal to a permanent fixture, SkyPier – the pearl of Asia-Pacific’s airport ferry terminals – is very much here to stay and, if anything, will grow further in the years ahead as aviation grows and continues to develop its intermodal links.

Asia-Pacific Airports 2010 Issue 2