The Omicron variant spread in the community due to individual crew members infecting their family members or violating quarantine arrangements. The authorities subsequently tightened the measures, including requiring freighter crew members to be quarantined in quarantine hotels for 7 days.
Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said when attending the Legislative Council question and answer session a few days ago that the relevant measures will affect the carrying capacity of air freight, increase commodity prices, and affect the entire Hong Kong people.
What is the current air cargo capacity in Hong Kong?
How much is the total import volume?
How is it affected by the epidemic?
How does tightening quarantine measures for crew members affect citizens?
Hong Kong has been tightening entry restrictions for two years since the epidemic, but some people "essential to economic and social operations" can enjoy quarantine exemption arrangements, including the freight industry.
According to AA data, the airport's total air cargo capacity (including loading and unloading) was about 4.6 million metric tons a year before the epidemic, dropped to about 4.4 million metric tons in 2020, and has risen to a level of over 5 million metric tons in 2021.
According to Airports Council International, Hong Kong Airport ranks first in the world in terms of international cargo throughput in 2020.
In response to a new wave of infections caused by individual crew members who were infected with their family members or violated quarantine arrangements, the authorities required the crew of cargo aircraft to stay in hotel quarantine for 7 days.
When interviewed by the Legislative Council yesterday, Carrie Lam pointed out that the consequences of tightening the measures will be apparent soon, "because Hong Kong's air freight and freight capacity have dropped significantly," and predicted that the supply of fresh goods, electronic products and medicines would be affected, and it was even more likely that Will increase the price.
In terms of value of goods, the import value of air cargo in the first three quarters of last year amounted to 2.3 trillion yuan (including re-exports), accounting for about 48% of the total import value of goods by air, ports and land in the same period.
However, the value of air cargo itself is relatively high, so the amount accounts for a large proportion, and the quarantine measures mainly affect the business of the industry.
In terms of cargo weight, the total air cargo capacity per year is about 1% of the port's cargo throughput.
In addition, many industry insiders expect that the affected goods are mostly expensive food ingredients, electronic parts, etc., and the impact on people's livelihood may be limited at first.
Cathay Pacific announced on December 31 that it would suspend long-haul cargo flights for a week after quarantine measures were tightened.
According to the data, Cathay Pacific carried about 135,000 metric tons of air cargo in November last year, accounting for about 28% of the total air cargo carried at the airport that month.
As for how much the employees of the air transport industry were affected during the epidemic, from the perspective of the number of people, the number of employees including passenger and freight services, freight forwarding services, and ground handling services before the epidemic exceeded 60,000. With layoffs and the closure of Dragon's operations, employment plummeted by nearly 8,000.
