Coronavirus: airlines want to return to Hong Kong but city’s chance of regaining status of global aviation hub fading by the day, trade body chief warns

Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), told the Post on the sidelines of a meeting of more than 100 airline executives in Doha last week that with “every day that passes, it becomes more difficult for Hong Kong” to regain its global status.

“To be honest, I think for some airlines, they have abandoned plans to regain their Hong Kong network for the moment, because of the scope to recover other markets first,” Walsh said.

But he added that every airline he had spoken to that served Hong Kong wanted to get back to the city.

The city has slowly eased its tough travel restrictions in recent months, but has stuck to mandatory hotel quarantine of seven days for travellers upon arrival and adjusted its flight suspension mechanism for airlines that bring in infected people.

Other Asian countries have gradually reopened to visitors, such as Thailand, which will no longer require arrivals to fill in a web-based form known as a “Thailand Pass” from July 1. Travellers will instead need to present a vaccination certificate or proof of a negative coronavirus test result to enter the country.

Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam are among other countries in Asia which have opened to tourists.

In interviews with the Post, airline executives struck a more hopeful tone, with Emirates chief commercial officer Adnan Kazim saying Hong Kong remained an important market for the Dubai-based carrier and Finnair CEO Topi Manner noting he was seeing “green shoots of opening”.