Hong Kong airport feels unrest-related slump, set for 2 million fewer travellers in 2019
- Whole-year drop estimated despite numbers being up in the first six months, before anti-government protests began
- And August brought the biggest year-on-year decline in monthly travellers in a decade
Hong Kong’s airport is set to handle 2 million fewer travellers this year than in 2018, as it feels the effects of anti-government protests in the city, according to a revised official forecast.
The unrest-related slump is particularly significant given that the travel hub’s passenger numbers had been growing in the first half of the year – up 1.03 million in the year to July against the same period of 2018.
Michael Yuen, general manager for airport and industry collaboration at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA), told Air Transport World at a conference in Adelaide that there would no longer be a 3 per cent increase in traffic, as estimated, but a decrease of the same size, the first annual drop since 2009.
The two-runway airport, one of Asia’s busiest, handled 74.6 million passengers in 2018, meaning a 3 per cent decline would amount to 2.24 million fewer fliers.
The Airport Authority, which runs HKIA, also revealed its biggest year-on-year decline in monthly travellers in a decade, with a drop of 12.4 per cent – or 851,000 travellers – in August, typically a time of high demand.