History
The authority was formed in 1995 (initially as the Provisional Airport Authority) and is independent of the government financially. There are plans to corporatise the AA and to list it on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and to partially sell it to the public.
A convention and exhibition facility, the AsiaWorld-Expo, on the northeastern corner of the island of Chek Lap Kok was opened in 21 December 2005.
On 17 January 2005, the AA acquired 49% stake of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, with HK$ 1.99 billion, compared to bids by Singapore Changi Airport, Copenhagen Airport, Houston International Airport and BAA plc. A new holding company of Xiaoshan Airport will be formed and be listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
On 17 February 2006, the AA confirmed it will hold 55% stake in a company that operates the Zhuhai Airport, with the remaining 45% owned by Zhuhai Airport. The company will not own the assets or the liabilities of the airport.
Read more about this topic: Airport Authority Hong Kong
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“The best history is but like the art of Rembrandt; it casts a vivid light on certain selected causes, on those which were best and greatest; it leaves all the rest in shadow and unseen.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)
“If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916)