Asia Airfreight Terminal Co., Ltd. (AAT) celebrated the opening of its highly anticipated Terminal 2 (T2) at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) at a ceremony officiated by the Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Mr Stephen Ip and the Chief Executive Officer of Airport Authority Hong Kong Mr Stanley Hui.

AAT's HK$1.75 billion T2, underlining the confidence of AAT in Hong Kong's position to be the preferred air cargo hub for this region, features a 4-storey warehouse area of 130,000 sq.m., two airside levels and landside access to every warehouse level. T2 would increase the current handling capacity of AAT to 1.5 million tonnes per annum, representing 30% of HKIA's air cargo handling capacity.

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Stanley Hui complimented AAT's contribution to the aviation industry and HKIA. He said "AAT's second terminal reflects well on its growing presence and quality service. In 2006, HKIA handled over HK$1.7 trillion worth of air cargo, accounting for more than 34% of Hong Kong's external trade. I'm confident that the air cargo industry in Hong Kong will continue to experience robust growth with the commitment of fine air cargo operators like AAT."

Since the ground breaking for AAT's T2 in August 2004, the construction had taken place smoothly and T2 was on schedule to open its docks to the first truck on Dec. 26, 2006. With the commencement of T2, different functions will be assigned to T1 and each level of T2. The relocation of assigned operations to T2 was completed in early March 2007.

AAT's T2 brand new facilities include:

• 170 truck docks spread across 4 levels, bringing the total number of truck docks to 230.
• 60 workstation decks, bringing the total to 94.
• Pallet container handling system (PCHS) served by 4 elevated transfer vehicles, providing an additional 1,000 storage positions.
• Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) separated into 2 blocks to increase the number of input/output stations, served by 9 stacker cranes that allow access to 3,600 storage positions.
• New Truck Control System (TCS) adopting RFID technology to control and monitor traffic flow within the terminal.

For the opening ceremony, all guests received together with their invitation an iPass card. This RFID tag was encoded with guest information, and upon entering the ceremony venue, the RFID antennas automatically read the guest information on the iPass and displayed a personalized welcome message on a screen. Mr Nelson Lee, General Manager, Planning & Services said, "AAT is always looking at ways to innovate. This is an opportunity to let our guests experience in a unique and different way the use of RFID technology, which we have implemented for our TCS".

The Chairman of SATS, Mr Edmund Cheng representing the shareholders presented the speech and also announced that AAT received two strong endorsements of its service quality. Thai Airways will be AAT's newest customer from April 18, 2007, and Asiana Cargo conferred on AAT "Best Service Award 2006" right after the opening ceremony. Mr Edmund Cheng said, "The vote of confidence from Thai Airways and Asiana Cargo is a great motivation for us to continue striving for distinction ... the strong team at AAT will continue to forge forward to becoming the best air cargo terminal operator in the world".