Hong Kong International airport (Chek Lap Kok) is one of the largest and busiest airport hubs in Asia. The airport was constructed on an artificial island off the north shore of Hong Kong’s main island Lantau, and has formed the basis for what is due to become an airport city, with attractions ranging from business parks to hotels, restaurants and cinemas to exhibition complexes and shopping malls.
Hong Kong International will also accommodate railway and ferry services to function as a consolidated public transport gateway to the whole region. The name for the next stage of the airport development project is as impressive as the concept behind it, SkyCity.
When complete, the complex is expected to attract millions of locals and tourists every year and give a powerful boost to the region’s economy. With such a large complex in development a necessary key planning decision early on is car parking management. There are 2,500 parking spaces at the airport, spread over one long-term and two short-term parking facilities, named Car Park 1 and Car Parks 4 and 5 respectively.
CAR PARKS FOR THE SKY CITY
Aside from the existing passenger parking facilities, the areas to be equipped with Skidata systems for parking access and revenue control include SkyCity, which is nearing the completion of its first construction phase. SkyCity contains the AsiaWorld Expo, an international exhibition centre with a visitor car park offering 1,100 bays, as well as the extensive SkyPlaza business and shopping complex, which provides a 3,000-bay car park for visitors and customers.
SKIDATA SYSTEM
All functions and procedures at these new car parks, including all of the back-office tasks and control of interfaced third-party equipment (such as systems for traffic guidance and surveillance) may be accessed and managed from the central control room. This centralisation of the system saves costs and reduces reaction times in case a customer needs assistance or a system device develops a problem.
Payment may be made at the attended pay points or at any of the seven pay-on-foot machines placed at convenient locations throughout the complex. For Hong Kong airport the Skidata solution supports the use of the popular local Octopus card, an RFID-based contactless pay card, as well as VEP (VISA Express Payment).
HONG KONG PARKING SYSTEM ENHANCEMENTS
The new Skidata system for Hong Kong International airport will provide parking management and also support maximum airport security. The system is optimised to give maximum revenue from the parking resources available at the airport and also uses various smart parking systems such as number plate recognition and RFID (radio frequency identification). The system uses user friendly single slot payment technology which can handle a variety of ticketing formats.
The system is modular, allowing easy incorporation of new car parks and equipment into the system. In addition the Skidata REMCO software allows full remote control via a web-based interface over the parking management system. This is ideal for Hong Kong airport as the site covers such a wide area. REMCO gives full, round-the-clock centralised remote control web-based monitoring over all installations, with the option of automating/maintaining them as required. Errors and system events can be responded to immediately.
