AA Signs Agreement for Airport Hotel

(HONG KONG, 20 March 1996) -- The Airport Authority today signed agreements with Regal Hotels International to provide the first hotel at Chek Lap Kok.

The hotel, which will have 600 rooms at opening, will operate as an integral part of the terminal building with the unique feature of allowing guests to move smoothly from their aircraft to the reception lobby without a level change and in a completely air-conditioned environment. "So far as we know, this is the only hotel in the world to offer suchcustomer friendly service," said Mr Chern Heed, Commercial Director, Airport Authority.

The Chairman of Regal Hotels International, Mr Y S Lo, was on hand to see the Authority's Chief Executive Officer, Dr Henry Townsend, and Regal Hotels International directors, Messrs Daniel Bong and Michael Choi, on behalf of Regal's wholly-owned subsidiary, Bauhinia Hotels Limited, sign two agreements - one for the development and operation of the hotel; the other for the development, management and operation of a multi-storey car park.

Mr Lo said: "It is a great honour for the Regal Hotels Group to have been designated the developer and operator of the new airport hotel at the new Hong Kong airport, which will be one of the best of its kind. Just as the new airport will take the territory into the new millennium with full confidence, the new airport hotel will take the Regal Hotels group into the next century with great pride."

Principal terms and conditions of the agreements for the hotel and car park include:

a 25-year hotel operating sub-lease;

the construction of a hotel with a gross floor area of no more than 72,000 square metres with no less than 600 rooms at airport opening, with phased expansion to approximately 1,150 rooms;

a multi-storey car park of not less than 1,750 spaces which adjoins the passenger terminal building and hotel to be constructed and managed by the developer on a fixed monthly fee for five years after airport opening.

The hotel's designers are architectural firm, Paliburg Development Consultants Limited, a subsidiary of Paliburg Holdings Limited. It designed the Regal Hongkong Hotel in Causeway Bay. Paliburg Estate Management Ltd, from the same family of companies, will manage the car park. Total investment costs for the four-star airport hotel and the car park are estimated to be in the region of HK$2 billion (US$256.4 million).

Ref. PR-211