Flight movements to break record on January 27
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    A record high number of flight movements at the Hong Kong International Airport is expected to be achieved on January 27 (Friday), when 870 aircraft are scheduled to arrive and depart.

     "The number of flight movements expected on January 27 represents an increase of about 12% compared with an average of 775 movements a day," a spokesman for the Civil Aviation Department said today (January 18).

     To date, 20 airlines have submitted slot requests to operate 333 additional scheduled and ad-hoc charter flights (a total of 666 flight movements) from January 24 to February 9, with most applications falling between January 27 and January 31.  

     Airlines that have already submitted the requests plan to operate flights to 11 destinations in Northeast Asia, nine destinations on the Mainland, eight in Southeast Asia and one in Australia. Taipei is the most popular destination, followed by Bangkok, Seoul, Sapporo and Tokyo.

     The previous record high of 827 flight movements in a single day occurred on October 28, 2005.

Ends/Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Issued at HKT 14:01

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