This afternoon, Hong Kong Chief Executive Li Jiachao announced four major travel benefits, including: the isolation measures for Hong Kong passengers entering the airport from overseas or Taiwan, China will be adjusted from the original "3+4" to "0+3", that is, there is no need to be forced quarantine, and you only need to undergo a 3-day medical test at your residence, and you can go out normally during this period; the above-mentioned Hong Kong tourists do not need to provide negative nucleic acid test results within 48 hours before boarding the plane, but only need to provide negative antigen test results within 24 hours.
(Picture from Chief Executive Twitter)
These measures will be implemented from September 26th, that is, next Monday. This news is undoubtedly a heart-warming agent for the long-sluggish civil aviation in Hong Kong.
Airlines actively prepared
shortly after the release of the policy, the official website of Cathay Pacific collapsed due to excessive visits. However, Cathay Pacific previously announced that a batch of long-range wide-body passenger planes sealed at Alice Springs Airport in Australia began to restart and restore to operational state, and will fly back to Hong Kong Airport to be put into commercial operations.
On the same day, another Hong Kong base airline, Hong Kong Airlines responded much faster.
Just this afternoon, Hong Kong Airlines immediately announced that it had encrypted the Osaka route that was already flying, and it will resume flights and encrypt three Japanese routes including Tokyo, Okinawa, and Sapporo . In addition, after the Hong Kong government announced that the entry quarantine policy was reduced to "3+4" in August, it has resumed flights one after another, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chengdu, Chongqing, Bangkok, Thailand, Seoul, South Korea, Manila, the Philippines and Hanoi, Vietnam. Currently, Hong Kong Airlines has resumed operations of 40% of the waypoints before the epidemic.
In addition, it is understood that Hong Kong Airlines is expected to resume operations by the end of the year and 60-70% of the waypoints before the epidemic.
Airlines are also worried about the market recovery.
Earlier, media reported that it was preparing for the recovery of the aviation industry. Cathay Pacific plans to recruit 4,000 front-line employees, including 700 pilots within two years.
But at the same time, Li Yongfu, chairman of the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Industry Federation, also publicly stated in the media that aviation practitioners have been indifferent to returning to the aviation industry and suggested that airlines adjust their salaries.
international transit is expected to resume
As an important international aviation hub in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong's flight volume has dropped sharply in the past two years. It is understood that among the 110 foreign airlines that flew to Hong Kong before the outbreak of new crown in early 2020, 48 have stopped flying to Hong Kong.
Data from the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department shows that in the past August, the take-off and landing volume of Hong Kong airport flights was only about 32% of the same period in 2019.
Previously, some media reported that due to strict quarantine measures for crew entry, the operating costs for International Airlines have increased, so Hong Kong will no longer be used as a transit.
The relaxed entry quarantine policy this time includes the "cancel of entry quarantine measures for crew members and the new coronavirus nucleic acid test for within 48 hours before boarding". Therefore, after the implementation of the new policy, international flights are expected to rebound. At the same time, for passengers who need to return home, Hong Kong, which does not need to be quarantined, will also become a preferred transit place.
Data from the travel platform Qunar shows that just after the above measures were announced today, the instantaneous search volume of international routes to Hong Kong on the platform increased by 4 times, including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Singapore and other places, including the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Singapore , etc., are the highest-ranked starting places.
During the two years of the epidemic, despite the overall market sluggish and the continued decline in flight and passenger transport, there is not no good news for the Hong Kong civil aviation industry. The third runway of Hong Kong International Airport, which was launched in July, will be a powerful boost to Hong Kong's civil aviation transportation.
According to Hong Kong Airport Authority , with the completion of the Hong Kong Airport three-runway system, it is estimated that by 2035, the annual passenger transport volume of Hong Kong International Airport will reach 120 million passengers and the cargo volume will reach 10 million tons, far exceeding the 75 million passengers and 5 million tons in 2018
