Media Centre

Ceiling Cleaning at Terminal 1 of HKIA

26  May  2020

Airport Authority Hong Kong (AA) is carrying out a comprehensive cleaning and maintenance exercise at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) to prepare for the recovery of air traffic when the pandemic subsides.  

The total ceiling area of Terminal 1 is 172,000m2, equivalent to approximately 24 football fields. The AA is cleaning the ceiling at Terminal 1 in both the restricted and non-restricted areas. The whole cleaning process is expected to be completed in August 2020.
    
The biggest challenge of the ceiling cleaning work is time constraints. In the past, such cleaning works can only be carried out for a few hours at night.

Amen Tong, General Manager, Technical Services of the AA said “We are catching the time when the terminal is less busy to deploy several cherry pickers in different areas to carry out ceiling cleaning work at the same time. In addition, the cleaning work could be carried out for a longer hours per day, we expected that the entire cleaning work could be shortened from one year to three months and also help to reduce the cost.”

Due to the height of the terminal building ceiling and the sizeable cleaning area, the AA must work with its cleaning service contractors closely to deploy various types of cherry pickers to different areas of the terminal building. For example, the distance between the ceiling and ground level at the Meeters and Greeters Hall is around 30 metres. Therefore, the contractor has to deploy cherry pickers that can reach 39 metres to facilitate the work. On average, there are 19 cherry pickers and roughly 50 cleaning workers carrying out ceiling cleaning work every day.

Meanwhile, the AA is also conducting cleaning and maintenance work for the “Spirit of Sha Tin” replica aircraft. The Hong Kong Historical Aircraft Association is responsible for the coordination work. During a regular routine, the “Spirit of Sha” Tin is cleaned for around three hours during late night every three to four months. This time, the aircraft has been lowered from the ceiling and placed in the Meeters and Greeters Hall for a week and a full inspection has been conducted. The team will also carry out an inspection of the aircraft’s various parts to check for any damage, test moving parts, and re-inflate the tires.

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