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Hong Kong International Airport
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Exclusive | Emirates to send transit passengers stranded in Hong Kong airport back to Dubai and suspend transfer of travellers through city

  • Ten transit passengers currently undergoing quarantine in city will be flown back to Dubai after their isolation ends on Saturday
  • Others still living in the airport’s transit zone include a Canadian trying to get to Vietnam and a mainland resident who has refused free flights back to London

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An Emirates aircraft about to land at Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: Roy Issa
Danny LeeandElizabeth Cheung

Ten passengers who were stranded at Hong Kong International Airport after arriving on an Emirates Airlines flight will be sent back to Dubai upon completing quarantine, with the carrier temporarily suspending transit flights to the city.

The news came as Hong Kong on Thursday recorded nine imported Covid-19 cases, including eight arriving from India and one from Pakistan. The latest additions brought the city’s tally of confirmed infections to 1,242, with seven related deaths.
Emirates has suspended transit services via Hong Kong airport from July 2 to 15. Photo: AP
Emirates has suspended transit services via Hong Kong airport from July 2 to 15. Photo: AP

Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK), the airport’s operator, introduced stricter penalties on July 1 for airlines flying unauthorised passengers to and through the city, after discovering 11 people travelling with the Middle Eastern carrier had been stuck in the transit zone for five days after failing to present valid boarding passes for mainland China.

While Hong Kong resumed transit flight services on June 1, the mainland has remained off-limits, and the authority briefed airlines on the rules before the resumption of transfer services. Given those circumstances, it remains unclear why the stranded passengers were allowed to board the flight in Dubai.

The transit fiasco has brought to light the ordeal of several other passengers in similar situations, including a traveller from Canada who has been living at the airport for three months now.

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