Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Following is the speech by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, at the Airspace Asia Pacific 2025 today (December 9):
Mr Hocquard (Director General of the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), Mr Simon Hocquard), Mr Han (Director-General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and Chair of the Asia Pacific CANSO, Mr Han Kok-juan), Mr Arel (Chair of CANSO, Mr Tim Arel), Messrs Ma (Deputy Administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), Mr Ma Bing, and Regional Director of Asia Pacific Office, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Mr Ma Tao), Mr Miao (Director-General of the Air Traffic Management Bureau of the CAAC, Mr Miao Xuan), distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning, and to our friends from abroad, a very warm welcome to Hong Kong. It is my great honour to address the CANSO Airspace Asia Pacific 2025. With our prime location right at the heart of Asia, half of the world’s population are within five hours by air. Not to mention as a premier southern gateway to the world’s second largest economy – the Chinese Mainland – Hong Kong is truly the perfect place to host this remarkable event.
Backed by firm national support and strong global connectivity, Hong Kong is widely recognised as an international aviation hub. Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) is a world leader in air cargo and a top international passenger airport. Last year, it handled 53 million passengers, an increase of one-third year-on-year, ranked among the top 10 busiest international passenger airports in the world. Over the first 10 months this year, HKIA already handled over 50 million passengers, representing 15 per cent growth compared to the same period last year. Cargo volume rose by 2.3 per cent year-on-year to over 4.1 million tonnes. Currently, about 140 airlines are operating, connecting us to over 200 destinations around the world. I’m very happy to say today that HKIA is just named by the 2025 World Travel Awards as the world’s leading airport in terms of customer experience.
As we have turned our dual-runway into a three-runway system, we are accelerating the expansion of the aviation network. Over the past two years, we have expanded bilateral air services agreements with more than 10 countries. I am happy to tell you that just the past two months, we have managed to strike deals and detailed agreements with a handful of South American countries, namely Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, Cuba, as well as Poland in Europe and Togo in West Africa. These are all countries in our major aviation partner network, including under the Belt and Road Initiative. In a way, we hope that we will extend our air connectivity to support our business and tourism sectors when dealing with all these countries.
While managing the very busy high-altitude air traffic, we are also actively exploring the opportunities presented by emerging unmanned air mobility technologies flying at the low altitude. As one of the themes of this conference, “Seamless Airspace: Integrating Manned, Uncrewed, and Advanced Air Mobility” is a powerful reflection of both the dynamic skies around the world. Today, allow me to take you through our journey of turning this vision of seamless integration from concept into tangible reality.
In Hong Kong, a city known for its ambition and innovation, we are building a new layer of intelligent, connected infrastructure in the airspace below 1 000 metres. We recognise that the low-altitude economy (LAE) is a very powerful convergence of aviation, digitalisation and green technology. But its success hinges on one critical factor: the safe, efficient and scalable integration of new air mobility technologies and solutions into our existing airspace system.
Our strategy to achieve this is built on a disciplined, three-phase approach, and together we mapped out a roadmap that helps us to move from very controlled testing scenarios to real-life, full-scale applications.
First, we began with conceptualisation and proof of concept. In March this year, we launched our LAE “Regulatory Sandbox”. This initiative marked our practical starting point for integration, inviting enterprises, technology and academic institutions to establish very tightly and well-managed controlled corridors to test real-world applications. The initial results are very promising just over the past nine months. To name a few:
- We have achieved a groundbreaking 18-minute cross-sea medical delivery by drone, cutting delivery time by over 60 per cent and proving the efficiency of unmanned logistics.
- Partners like the MTR Corporation (MTR Corporation Limited) are integrating and implementing AI-enabled drone systems for railway infrastructure maintenance, surveillance, and preventive maintenance. In a way, they are creating a smart eye in the sky that enhances both safety and efficiency.
- Crucially, over a dozen government departments are already adopting low-altitude economy applications by using drones, embedding this new opportunity into the fabric of public services and urban management.
These are not isolated trials. They are the fundamental and foundational steps in helping us to build trust, reliability and operational data for a shared airspace.
Second, we are now advancing to consolidation and complex integration through the LAE “Regulatory Sandbox X” scheme, which was just launched two weeks ago. “X” in the project’s name denotes extra complexity and extended scale, so it is really limitless opportunities. Directly aligned with CANSO’s theme, this phase deliberately introduces more sophisticated integration scenarios. We are heading to more challenging scenarios like cross-boundary logistics, using heavier drones and even passenger-carrying drones. Our focus will be on the key modules including an unmanned aircraft traffic management system, eVTOLs and an integrated platform.
The fundamental objective of this phase is to address a critical question before us: What creates outsized economic value while maintaining acceptable risk? It serves as our practical, real-world laboratory for pioneering the harmonisation of both air traffic and unmanned air traffic management system.
And ultimately, our path leads to a codified action plan. By the end of next year, the data and experience from these two phases of “Regulatory Sandbox” schemes will help us to culminate data into a comprehensive action plan. Underpinning this roadmap are two essential enablers.
First, an adaptive regulatory framework. We have actually, with the help of the past Legislative Council, already started our legislative amendment exercise. We will also embark on an exercise to map out a dedicated law to enable us to advance to a more complex and integrated low-altitude air traffic management and safety system. Compliance is our top priority. It is a guardrail from the start and absolutely will not be a checkpoint at the end. With the successful implementation of the Legislative Council General Election, we are here to work closely with our new elected Legislative Councillors in partnership so as to advance and expedite our law amendment exercise.
The second enabler is a collaborative ecosystem for regional leadership. Seamless airspace cannot be achieved in isolation. Hong Kong, with our strengths as an international financial centre and a hub for legal and insurance services, is mobilising our capital and risk-management expertise in order to provide solutions for the entire industry. Furthermore, our position in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area of the Chinese Mainland gives us unrivalled access to world-class manufacturing and R&D (research and development) hubs. This synergy between Hong Kong’s international standards and the region’s innovation capacity creates a perfect launchpad for the low-altitude economy. We are actively engaging in global standard-setting technologies and dialogues, including those with ICAO, to ensure the frameworks we develop contribute to regional and global harmonisation.
Ladies and gentlemen, our journey follows a simple, evidence-based cadence: plan, test, learn and decide. We are building more than a low-altitude economy; we are building a blueprint for the seamless, safe, innovative and efficient airspace of the future – not just locally, but globally.
Hong Kong is fully committed to collaborating with all of you – our partners across the Asia-Pacific region and the world – to ensure that our skies remain a realm of limitless opportunities. Together, we will pioneer an airspace where manned and unmanned vehicles integrate seamlessly and safely, fuelling economic growth and connecting our communities in once unimaginable ways.
Thank you again, and I wish you a very fruitful, positive and collaborative conference today. Thank you very much.