Nearly 600 flight movements are expected to take place at the Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) on February 4, the day preceding the Chinese Lunar New Year's Day.

This will be an all-time high in the total number of flights HKIA handles in a single day.

"The number of flight movements expected on the peak traffic day represents an increase of nearly 30 percent when compared with an average of 460 movements a day," a spokesman for Hong Kong's Civil Aviation Department (CAD) said Thursday.

As of Thursday, 27 airlines have submitted slot requests to operate 936 additional scheduled and ad-hoc charter flights during the two-week period from January 29 to February 13, with most of the applications falling on the period of February 3 to 11. All the requests received so far have been accepted.

Those airlines that have already submitted slot requests plan to operate flights to 24 destinations in China's mainland, 11 destinations in Southeast Asia, nine destinations in Northeast Asia, four destinations in Australia and New Zealand, and two destinations in the Middle East and Europe.

The record high for the former Kai Tak airport was 483 flight movements in a single day, which occurred on February 5, 1997.

To ensure smooth air traffic operations, CAD will deploy 12.5 percent extra staff to work in the Air Traffic Control Center and the Air Traffic Control Tower from February 3 to 11.

The total flight slots allocated for the two-week period represent a 36 percent rise over the Chinese New Year period in 1999. The previous record high of flight movements in a single day occurred on both April 2 and 6, 1999, when on each of those days 560 flight movements took place at the HKIA.