Coronavirus: Hong Kong airport plans to temporarily resume transit flights serving mainland China, source says
- Chinese students seeking mainland return or resumption of overseas studying stand to benefit, source says
- But the return of transfers for the mainland might only last a month
Cathay Pacific warns of harsh outlook as it confirms record half-year loss
A source suggested the reopening was designed to serve students needing to fly out of China to resume their studies abroad. The restarting of services could also help more than just students.
Flights back to China have been in short supply since its civil aviation authority restricted international journeys in and out of the country to combat the risk of imported Covid-19 cases, as the country recovered from the initial wave of the epidemic.
China has slowly eased restrictions for some countries, including the United States, which had banned mainland flights after US airlines were not offered reciprocal access.
Mainland media reported HKIA could resume transfer flights, suggesting it could “attract a large number of travellers back from overseas”.
In normal times, Cathay Pacific is one of the largest non-mainland airlines operating in China with 23 airports, but as of August is only flying to Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu and Xiamen a maximum of 11 times a week, a far cry from the 360 flights a week it operated before the pandemic.
Hong Kong airport has been relaunching transit flights since June 1, but not to the mainland. Previously, all transit services were suspended from March 25.
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Ronald Lam Siu-por, Cathay Pacific’s chief customer and commercial officer, said: “If that [the China plan] opens up, it will certainly help our passenger volume in the short term.”
Transit passengers in normal times contribute up to half of the airline’s overall volume.
Ivan Su, equities analyst at Morningstar, said: “It will be very good for Cathay given China’s stringent rules in place for international flights.”
Wang Guanran, who is arranging charter flights to repatriate Chinese citizens home, said: “Flight prices are already very expensive, because of the CAAC’s [Civil Aviation Administration of China] policy. This issue is exacerbated by brokers and airline insiders selling tickets at a mark-up.”
He said for a flight from Sydney to Shanghai the airline’s base fare was around 28,000 yuan but that brokers managed to withhold ticket inventory and marked the price up sometimes over 100 per cent.
Wang said another example was China Eastern flight 588 from New York’s John F Kennedy Airport to Shanghai Pudong.
“This is one of the most sought after flights because it brings passengers from New York, which was one of the worst coronavirus-hit US states. Tickets for this flight were sold for up to 250,000 yuan a piece by external brokers.”
Hong Kong’s Transport and Housing Bureau referred inquiries to the Airport Authority, which was not immediately available for comment.
