Many countries around the world have gradually relaxed anti-epidemic measures, and the aviation industry has restarted.
Due to the flight circuit breaker mechanism and strict external import prevention measures, the recovery progress of Hong Kong Airport is lagging behind.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said at the beginning of the year that Hong Kong had lost its status as an international aviation hub.
"Hong Kong 01" compiled the data of airports in Hong Kong and surrounding areas in East Asia in the past five years. Although Hong Kong has always been ahead in terms of flight movements, passenger volume or cargo volume before the epidemic, it has firmly held the position of the leading aviation hub in the region, but it has an advantage under the epidemic. Not just narrow.
With the resumption of customs clearance in many overseas regions, the local aviation industry has also rebounded. Looking at the data in the first four months of this year, Singapore Changi Airport, South Korea's Incheon Airport and Japan's Narita Airport have overtaken Hong Kong in terms of flight movements and passenger flow.
Among them, Singapore Changi Airport has one-third more flight movements than Hong Kong Airport, and the passenger volume in the first four months of this year is nearly 11 times higher than that of Hong Kong Airport.
Recently, South Korea and Japan have successively announced measures to switch on and off passengers. It is reported that the aviation industry in Hong Kong has also formed a delegation to ask the authorities to relax the epidemic prevention requirements.
Some scholars have analyzed that many major cities around the world have begun to relax epidemic prevention measures, but Hong Kong still maintains strict measures, resulting in a low level of flight and passenger traffic.
He believes that once Hong Kong relaxes its integration with international standards, it will take one to two years to recover to its pre-epidemic level, but he must also pay attention to the global economic situation, which may affect the speed of recovery.
Together with Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, Hong Kong is collectively known as the "Four Asian Tigers" and is an emerging developed country or region in Asia after Japan.
"Hong Kong 01" compiled the data of Hong Kong International Airport, Taiwan Taoyuan Airport, Singapore Changi Airport, South Korea's Incheon Airport, and Japan's Narita Airport in the last five years, and then compared them to understand the situation of the aviation industry in various places before and after the epidemic.
Before the epidemic, Hong Kong did have a leading position. Regardless of passenger volume, flight movements, and cargo volume, Hong Kong was clearly ahead of the other four airports in 2018 and 2019. Taking the number of aircraft movements as an example, Hong Kong Airport's 2015 From 2019 to 2019, the annual volume of movements exceeded 400,000; other airports generally maintained at 200,000 to more than 300,000.
▼Under the epidemic, the flow of people at Hong Kong Airport has been greatly reduced▼
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2020 as Handicap Airport passenger traffic begins to lag
In 2020, the world is affected by the epidemic, and various places have introduced epidemic control measures to prevent the spread of the epidemic.
Although Hong Kong Airport still led the year in terms of flight movements, the leading margin narrowed. Hong Kong Airport had 160,000 flight movements throughout the year, South Korea's Incheon Airport had 150,000 flights, and Japan's Narita Airport had 136,000 flights.
In terms of passenger traffic, Hong Kong has lost its leading position, with only 8.81 million passengers in the whole year, but Singapore's Changi Airport, South Korea's Incheon Airport and Japan's Narita Airport still maintain over 10 million passengers.
Last year, Narita Airport had four times more passengers than Hong Kong Airport
In 2021, the situation will continue, Hong Kong's flight movements will still maintain an advantage, but the passenger volume will continue to lag behind Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
Last year, the annual passenger volume of Hong Kong Airport was only 1.35 million, but Singapore and South Korea both exceeded 3 million, which is twice as many as Hong Kong; Japan has 5.24 million passengers, almost four times that of Hong Kong.
Entering 2022, many places around the world have gradually relaxed anti-epidemic measures. Hong Kong also lifted the "no-fly order" for nine countries from April, and also relaxed the "circuit breaker mechanism" for flights in May.
However, looking at the data as of April this year, Hong Kong's flight movements have lost its leading position in the region. Singapore's Changi Airport has 50,000 flights, the highest of the five places, Japan's Narita Airport has 48,000 flights, and South Korea's Incheon Airport has 48,000 flights. There are also 43,000 sorties; on the contrary, there are only about 41,000 in Hong Kong, which is only higher than about 35,000 at Taiwan's Taoyuan Airport.
Hong Kong Airport's passenger traffic in the first four months of this year is only 8.4% of that of Singapore
As for passenger traffic, Hong Kong is even further behind the above airports, with only 377,000 passengers as of April, lower than Taiwan's 400,000 passengers; Singapore's 4.5 million passengers, more than ten times more than Hong Kong's.
Singapore Airport alone counted more passengers in the first four months of this year than in the whole of 2021.
As for Japan's Narita and South Korea's Incheon airports, the number of passengers in the first four months of this year was 2.95 million and 1.74 million respectively, nearly 7 times and 3.6 times more than Hong Kong's.
Hong Kong Airport still leads the way in cargo volume but narrows
Only in terms of cargo volume, Hong Kong has maintained its leading position and will remain the world's first in 2021; South Korea's Incheon Airport will climb to second in the world that year.
However, Hong Kong's lead is narrowing. In 2018, the cargo volume handled was 41.2% higher than that of Incheon Airport. In 2020, it dropped to 36.2%. In the first four months of this year, it only increased by 24.5%, or about 341,000 tonnes more.
It is worth noting that at the beginning of this year, due to loopholes in the quarantine of Cathay Pacific cargo aircraft personnel, the government tightened quarantine arrangements, and Cathay Pacific temporarily suspended long-distance freight.
Natixis recently pointed out that Hong Kong's strict border restrictions are weakening its advantages in the aviation industry. In 2020, as the global aviation industry is in a blockade mode, Hong Kong is not significantly different from other regions; but when the world reopens this year, Hong Kong is still Standing still, Hong Kong is one of the worst performing regions in Asia, with passenger traffic hovering around the pre-pandemic 2% level.
The bank continued that if Hong Kong continues to lag, once the short-term pressure becomes permanent, its competitiveness in the aviation sector will disappear.
▼The epidemic lasted for more than two years, and the airport was full of passenger planes▼
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Luo Xiangguo: Hong Kong Airport can be restored within one to two years as long as it successfully integrates with international policies
Luo Xiangguo, senior consultant of the Center for Aviation Policy Research at CUHK, said that many major cities around the world have gradually relaxed their service performance, and service performance has begun to recover; however, Hong Kong still maintains relatively strict measures, so that the flight volume and passenger capacity remain at a low level.
He continued to point out that many places in the world can pass quarantine-free customs, and Hong Kong may not necessarily need to follow suit immediately, but stressed that this is the most ideal goal. He believes that as long as it is successfully integrated with international policies, the operating performance before the epidemic can be restored within one to two years.
However, he also added that the situation in the Asia-Pacific and Indo-Pacific regions is tense, and Europe is also affected by the war, and the economy may decline. Due to the unstable international situation, the recovery speed of the aviation industry may be affected.
Luo Xiangguo, senior consultant of the Center for Aviation Policy Research at CUHK, said that many major cities around the world have gradually relaxed their service performance, and service performance has begun to recover; however, Hong Kong still maintains relatively strict measures, so that the flight volume and passenger capacity remain at a low level.
(File photo/Photo by Lu Yiming)
As for cargo volume, he said that Incheon Airport mainly serves Northeast Asia, while Hong Kong not only serves Northeast Asia, but also covers Southeast Asia, and the coverage areas are always different; and due to different cargo quarantine requirements, the impact is small, and I believe it can still be maintained. Advantage.
The business community urges the suspension of the circuit breaker mechanism Scholar Li Zhaobo: The lethality of the mechanism is probably less than the point-to-point cross-border transport of the Congo mainland banned point-to-point cross-border transportation.
Withdrawal of the ban on flights from nine countries, the number of flights to Hong Kong continued, the long-distance diving aircraft was once cleared, and the epidemic prevention policy approved by the International Air Transport Association was too strict. Losing its status as a hub is like disappearing from the map. Scholars and doctors all point to relaxation
