Hong Kong airport is falling off the radar
Hong Kong’s airport has been a spooky place through much of the pandemic as traveller numbers have dwindled, leaving cavernous arrival halls devoid of their usual bustle. The rest of the world is now opening up to international travel but in Hong Kong, which has some of the toughest Covid-19 quarantines in the world, the airport remains largely empty of incoming passengers. The city has for many years claimed the title of the busiest airport in Asia, and is set up as a vital air bridge to the rest of the Asia Pacific for those coming from Europe, and a passage for business travellers into South China, the country’s economic nucleus. But last Tuesday, when the city’s leader Carrie Lam said the ban on flights from nine countries would stay until at least April 20, a now-unremarkable trickle of 229 passengers arrived, down from the typical tens of thousands daily before the pandemic. The local government says the isolation is necessary as it races to control an Omicron outbreak and keep the city in line with Beijing’s zero Covid policy, but airline bosses in Asia have told the Financial Times the measures are not only having a disastrous impact on business. “A lot of airlines are thinking very hard about the future for Hong Kong — do we still need to fly to Hong Kong?” a North American airline executive said, adding that it was becoming “career suicide” to continue to advocate to their head office for flights to be sent to the Asian financial hub. “I’m quite worried Singapore will replace Hong Kong not just as a financial centre but also as an aviation centre,” the executive said, pointing to Singapore Airlines’ move late last year to add new routes, including to Vancouver and Seattle. Singapore Changi airport and Seoul’s Incheon international airport have overtaken Hong Kong in terms of traffic, and many airlines including Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France have paused direct flights to Hong Kong altogether. The situation could worsen because of the war in Ukraine. Story has more.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-03-01/general/hong-kong-airport-is-falling-off-the-radar
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Hong Kong airport is falling off the radar
Hong Kong’s airport has been a spooky place through much of the pandemic as traveller numbers have dwindled, leaving cavernous arrival halls devoid of their usual bustle. The rest of the world is now opening up to international travel but in Hong Kong, which has some of the toughest Covid-19 quarantines in the world, the airport remains largely empty of incoming passengers. The city has for many years claimed the title of the busiest airport in Asia, and is set up as a vital air bridge to the rest of the Asia Pacific for those coming from Europe, and a passage for business travellers into South China, the country’s economic nucleus. But last Tuesday, when the city’s leader Carrie Lam said the ban on flights from nine countries would stay until at least April 20, a now-unremarkable trickle of 229 passengers arrived, down from the typical tens of thousands daily before the pandemic. The local government says the isolation is necessary as it races to control an Omicron outbreak and keep the city in line with Beijing’s zero Covid policy, but airline bosses in Asia have told the Financial Times the measures are not only having a disastrous impact on business. “A lot of airlines are thinking very hard about the future for Hong Kong — do we still need to fly to Hong Kong?” a North American airline executive said, adding that it was becoming “career suicide” to continue to advocate to their head office for flights to be sent to the Asian financial hub. “I’m quite worried Singapore will replace Hong Kong not just as a financial centre but also as an aviation centre,” the executive said, pointing to Singapore Airlines’ move late last year to add new routes, including to Vancouver and Seattle. Singapore Changi airport and Seoul’s Incheon international airport have overtaken Hong Kong in terms of traffic, and many airlines including Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France have paused direct flights to Hong Kong altogether. The situation could worsen because of the war in Ukraine. Story has more.<br/>
