While Hong Kong Airport has long only had one full departures concourse, that’s about to change as of the next two years. The airport’s Terminal 2 is about to open, and will eventually feature full departures capabilities, such as boarding gates, lounges, and more.
While Terminal 2 doesn’t currently exist, it used to. Up until November 2019, the airport operated a second terminal, featuring check-in desks, a Plaza Premium arrivals lounge, security facilities, a cinema, etc.. However, that “terminal” never featured departure gates – after clearing security and immigration, a hallway led passengers down to the automated people mover train, which simply brought passengers back to Terminal 1.
After being rebuilt from the ground up, Terminal 2 is facing a grand reopening on May 27. However, this grand reopening will bring the airport back to the old setup – just the landside features will be inaugurated, whereas passengers will then take the train back to Terminal 1.
I’ll first detail what we know, and then make a couple of speculations based on what we already know about Hong Kong Airport.
Hong Kong Airport’s Terminal 2 check-in hall opening May 27
On February 17, Hong Kong Airport made an announcement that their Terminal 2 check-in facilities would open on May 27, 2026. It’s my understanding that this includes check-in desks, as well as security and immigration facilities, including biometric security features (and presumably new scanners) and e-channels for citizens and residents.
The emphasis of the announcement seems to be on self-service facilities and smart technologies, and the new terminal is described as “vibrant, youthful and technologically forward-thinking”. The renderings of the new Terminal 2 looks gorgeous, if not akin to many of the newer airports we see in mainland China these days.
Hong Kong Airport’s Terminal 2 rendering
While I don’t write about this often, Hong Kong Airport currently has an awesome level of biometrics going on – once your face is scanned prior to security screening, you don’t have to take your passport or boarding pass out at all, and your face is simply scanned at the boarding gate (this is called their “Flight Token” technology). I’m a huge fan of this, and it works well most of the time. That’s not even to mention the e-gates, which I have access to as a Hong Kong citizen – I can simply scan a QR code to enter and exit the country, which is such a huge contrast to many other countries. My understanding is that the same level of technology will be available at Terminal 2, and that’s exciting.
Terminal 2’s new concourse will open in 2027…and require a train ride to all gates
While Terminal 2’s check-in hall will open in May 2026, airlines using Terminal 2 will continue to use Terminal 1 for their actual departures gates for now. This will change in 2027, once the new concourse is complete.
Hong Kong Airport’s Terminal 2 concourse, circa January 2026
While there hasn’t been a specific timeline for when in 2027 the concourse is complete, Aedas states that the terminal will have 27 boarding gates. Seven of these boarding gates will be multiple aircraft ramp system (MARS) gates, which means that they have the ability to either accommodate one widebody aircraft, or accommodate two Code C (A320/737) aircraft at the same time.
My prediction is that the airport would number these gates 101-127, with A and B separations for the MARS gates, and have a separate area for bus gates as well. But that’s completely speculation on my part, and mainly based on the fact that the airport has gates 1-80 and gates 201-230.
Terminal 2 departures concourse renderings
The one thing I do know is that all Terminal 2 passengers will have to take an automatic people mover train in order to get to their gate, even when the actual departures concourse is fully functional. How do I know? That’s because the actual departures concourse is nowhere near the check-in hall, and I’d actually suspect that this would be quite a long train journey, along the lines of 5-8 minutes (as opposed to the 1-2 minute train to get from the immigration hall to gates 40-80 at the moment).
The airport hasn’t really been clear on this yet, though it seems like the actual departures concourse will be called Terminal 2C (I’d guess C stands for concourse?). Terminal 2C will sit between the centre runway and the north runway, which opened in 2022 (and I’ve landed on countless times since).
All Terminal 2 passengers will have to take a train to their gate, even when the dedicated T2 concourse opens
That’s not the best passenger experience, though it’s not like the airport had much space to play with, given how many years Terminal 1 has already been in operation, and the lack of road infrastructure near the Terminal 2 concourse area.
Hong Kong Airlines, HK Express, and Greater Bay Airlines to move to T2, alongside 12 other airlines
Throughout the press releases, airport authorities confirmed two things, with Fred Lam (Airport Authority Hong Kong chairman) explicitly quoted for both:
- 15 airlines would move their operations to Terminal 2, mainly short-haul and regional carriers
- Hong Kong Airlines, HK Express, and Greater Bay Airlines were confirmed to move to the new terminal
The old Terminal 2 housed HK Express and Hong Kong Airlines, and also housed airlines such as AirAsia, Eastar Jet, Cebu Pacific, and Thai Airways. I’d say with moderate confidence that some, if not all of these airlines would be part of the lineup of 15 airlines moving back to Terminal 2. I am pretty certain that Cathay Pacific, by far the largest Hong Kong-based carrier, will keep all of their operations consolidated at Terminal 1.
Hong Kong Airlines is moving to the new Terminal 2
It’s interesting that all three of the above carriers (including Cathay-owned HK Express) are moving to Terminal 2, making Cathay Pacific the sole airline with a Hong Kong hub based in Terminal 1.
We know nothing in the way of lounges, though I’m almost certain that Hong Kong Airlines will open a new lounge at Terminal 2 when the main concourse opens (Club Autus, while nice, is small, and I’ve heard it’s starting to fall apart). Meanwhile, I’d assume Plaza Premium and Kyra will probably establish a presence there, too.
While it’s too early to tell whether another airline would open an outstation lounge at Terminal 2 (since we don’t know what the airlines are), I have a gut feeling that if Thai Airways moved, they’d probably re-open a lounge (they used to have one at HKIA many years ago), and bring on a couple of other Star Alliance carriers with them (perhaps Air China?). Once again, I’m only speculating based on the fact that Thai Airways used to operate from Terminal 2 in the past, and also used to operate a lounge at Hong Kong Airport, though doesn’t anymore.
Hong Kong Airlines’ Club Autus was nice in 2018, though I’ve heard it’s seen better days recently – I’m almost certain the airline will open a lounge at T2, given that it’ll move there
From how the announcement was phrased, I think we won’t see a migration of a particular alliance into Terminal 2, like what we see at Seoul Incheon (with Korean Air’s SkyTeam being operated out of the new Terminal 2) or Paris CDG (where Star Alliance operates out of Terminal 1). All three alliances have longhaul flights on multiple member airlines flying out of Hong Kong, and all three alliances have a lounge presence at Terminal 1. I think that’s unlikely to change.
Conclusion
Hong Kong Airport is opening a new Terminal 2, and the landside process will open in May 2026, with a similar departures process to that we saw in the airport’s old Terminal 2 setup (i.e. that passengers would afterwards take the automated people mover train to Terminal 1).
We now also have a couple of confirmed details about who’s going to be at Terminal 2, which allows us to make a few speculations about what lounges the airport will have, as well as what other airlines could move there.
This is exciting, and will allow HKG to expand in a way that we haven’t seen in the past!
Do you have any predictions about what will happen at HKG’s new Terminal 2?
