Airlines hesitate to revive Hong Kong flights

Hong Kong's tentative steps to loosen restrictions on travelers and airlines have yet to translate into a significant restoration of the financial center's global connections even as the traditional summer holiday season nears, according to a flight-schedule analysis by Nikkei Asia. Until the COVID pandemic, Hong Kong was Asia's top air hub for international passenger traffic. In 2019, 71.54m people traveled between Hong Kong and 220 cities in China and overseas, according to airport data. On average, 484 passenger flights landed each day. As of May 23, airlines were set to operate an average of 34 flights from Hong Kong each June day, connecting the city to 47 cities, according to data from aviation analytics company Cirium. This compares with an average of 47 scheduled daily departures on 54 routes in May. Only 55,500 air passengers landed in the city in April. "As aviation hubs across the world begin to bring back capacity and stage a recovery, Hong Kong is obviously falling behind to a certain extent," Cathay Pacific Airways Chairman Patrick Healy told shareholders at the annual meeting of the Hong Kong flag carrier earlier this month. The contrast with regional rival Singapore is stark. According to Cirium data, scheduled flights next month out of Singapore, which has no COVID restrictions on airlines and does not require arrivals to quarantine, are already set to return to 49% of 2019 levels. "Singapore is now pretty much fully open to air travel," said Dennis Lau, senior valuations analyst at Ascend by Cirium, the group's consultancy unit. "In fact, passengers traveling out of Hong Kong to most destinations have no choice but to fly on connecting flights, and flying via Singapore is one of the most popular options." Story has more.<br/>