Although the third airport runway in Hong Kong officially opens for business on Thursday, there won’t be much more flight capacity for at least a year.
Documents released by the city’s Civil Aviation Department indicate that aircraft travel will only increase by 4% during the subsequent summer season, which runs from March to October 2025.
This gradual ramp-up is a reflection of the city’s slow post-pandemic aviation comeback. Currently, Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. has not fully recovered, and the airport is having trouble attracting major international carriers, especially those that must fly via Russian airspace, which necessitates a longer round-trip flight.
In general, street protests and draconian measures that hurt the city’s economy, tourism, and businesses continue to harm Hong Kong’s reputation. Although the city’s total visitor numbers have nearly returned to their pre-pandemic levels, a large number of visitors are now arriving by land or water from mainland China.
The new runway is “going to be there for a long, long time,” said Vivian Cheung, acting chief executive officer of operator Airport Authority Hong Kong. “We didn’t want to use up this runway all in one or two seasons. Even our base carrier needs time to ramp up its flights.”
It may consequently take longer to achieve the transformative impact that the HK$141.5 billion airport project is intended to have on the economy and tourism sector of the Asian financial centre. The initiative is crucial to the city’s efforts to remain competitive with Singapore as a major regional centre. Last month, Deputy Financial Secretary Michael Wong stated that it “may well be the single most important key of Hong Kong’s sustained success as a leading international aviation hub.”
Officials intend to increase the total runway capacity to 1,453 takeoffs and landings per day by next summer in comparison to the same period this year, according to records released by the city’s Civil Aviation Department. Confirming a previous Bloomberg News article, HKIA stated that the expanded passenger buildings connected to the third runway will be put into service gradually starting at the end of 2025.
Prior to COVID, one of the busiest international passenger transit hubs in the world was Hong Kong. With Seoul’s most recent improvement almost finished and Singapore and Bangkok starting multi-billion dollar expansion projects, it now faces fierce regional competition.
Staffing difficulties and a training backlog have made it more difficult for Cathay to restore flights to their pre-Covid levels. The ship is gradually receiving more aircraft, but because of the shortage of aircrew, it is still not making the most of its current fleet.
The airline announced on Tuesday that starting in January, it will operate at 100% of its pre-pandemic flight capacity. At the end of October, Hong Kong Airport’s passenger numbers were approximately 85% of monthly pre-Covid levels.
