A study of international security requirement on Hong Kong air cargo industry : development and challenges

Abstract

Currently, most of the research related to aviation sector of Hong Kong would focus on infrastructure perspective such as the building of 3rd runway in HKIA and the cooperation issues among airports in Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region in order to analyze the impact towards competitiveness of Hong Kong as a major international air cargo hub. However, there are not much research on air cargo industry has been done from security perspective but the recent trend of tightening international security requirement has already brought significant impact on the competitiveness of Hong Kong air logistics sector.

In fact, the United States enacted the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA) after the 9/11 incident in 2001 already signaled a new era in air cargo transportation. Significant security measures have been implemented to all facilities shipping cargo to the United States and air cargo sector in Hong Kong would be included. Since most of the international air cargo that enters the United States transits through large hub facilities in Asia such as Hong Kong, there is a strong air cargo network linkage between Hong Kong and the United States.

This study aims to understand the major development of international air cargo security requirement and the consequences for Hong Kong air cargo industry. This study also examines challenges of the requirement on Hong Kong air cargo industry from operational and economic perspective. An in-depth interview would be conducted to obtain industrial insights on developing recommendations on fulfilling the requirement in a cost-effective manner. This study would act as a stepping stone for further analysis on providing recommendations to facilitate the security requirement development in Hong Kong air cargo industry.