Coronavirus: as travellers rush to beat quarantine measures on Britain and the US, flights to Hong Kong balloon in price
- Arrivals from popular study-abroad destinations, as well as Ireland and Egypt, face 14-day orders from Thursday
- Some flights from London have quadrupled in price
Travellers scrambling to return to Hong Kong before new quarantine measures hit arrivals from popular study-abroad destinations have bought all available tickets and sent prices for seats on later flights through the roof.
By Monday afternoon, no tickets were available for flights arriving from London before Thursday, when the Hong Kong government planned to impose a 14-day quarantine period on all arrivals from Britain, Ireland and the United States, searches by the Post found.
That situation had eased slightly hours later, as Cathay Pacific Airways moved to reinstate some previously cancelled flights.
The quarantine measures were intended to battle the spread of the coronavirus in the city, which had recorded 148 infections and four related deaths through Monday.
At 1pm, a one-way economy ticket on Cathay Pacific from London’s Heathrow Airport, which normally costs less than HK$10,000 (US$1,290), was going for more than HK$43,000, according to the airline’s website, even though the earliest take-off available was on March 26, which would miss the quarantine cut-off by a week.
A ticket on a Virgin Atlantic flight leaving on Sunday was going for more than HK$55,000, while a British Airways direct flight at HK$37,000 was snapped up.