Hong Kong asks Japan to drop airport bans, 60,000 travellers affected

HONG KONG, Dec 29 (Reuters) – Hong Kong has asked Japan to withdraw a COVID-19 restriction that allows passenger flights from the monetary hub to land only at four designated airports, expressing the final decision would impact about 60,000 passengers.

India, Italy, Taiwan and the United States require necessary COVID-19 assessments on travellers from China immediately after Beijing’s choice last thirty day period to carry stringent zero-COVID policies that fuelled a surge in bacterial infections across mainland China.

Hong Kong, home to additional than 7 million individuals, is recording close to 20,000 coronavirus cases a working day but lifted its COVID curbs on Thursday for the 1st time in a few decades.

Japan, a major journey location for those people in Hong Kong, claimed it would restrict flights from Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China to Tokyo’s two airports, as effectively as Osaka and Nagoya, from Friday.

The decision arrives for the duration of a peak vacation season ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday getaway which begins on Jan. 21.

“It is comprehended that all around 250 outbound flights of Hong Kong airways will be afflicted amongst December 30, 2022 and the conclude of January 2023, impacting about 60,000 passengers,” the authorities claimed in a statement late on Wednesday.

Metropolis leader John Lee reported the authorities experienced indicated to Japan that it was let down.

“We consider that Hong Kong persons really should be authorized to use not just these 4 airports,” Lee explained.

On Thursday, Hong Kong’s federal government mentioned Japan would allow passenger flights from Hong Kong also land in Hokkaido, Fukuoka and Okinawa offered that no passengers aboard had been in mainland China for the prior seven times, but claimed the situation was “unreasonable”.

Flights of Hong Kong airways can nevertheless carry passengers again to Hong Kong from airports in Japan, the authorities said, to assure their clean return and “minimise the impression to Hong Kong travellers prompted by the incident.”

In a statement, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways (0293.HK) reported it would go on to run flights to Japan, while it would cut down these to 65 a week, down 20{0b5b04b8d3ad800b67772b3dcc20e35ebfd293e6e83c1a657928cfb52b561f97} from its planned routine for Jan 2023.

HK Express, which is owned by Cathay, mentioned in a different statement it would only be able to operate 60 scheduled flights a week to places in Japan because of to the curbs, prompting the cancellation of 41 flights from Hong Kong to Japan in January.

Hong Kong Airways and Peach Aviation said they would terminate some flight routes since of the procedures.

In December, China began dismantling the world’s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and in depth testing, putting its battered economy on study course for a comprehensive re-opening next 12 months.

The lifting of curbs adhering to popular protests has meant that COVID is spreading mainly unchecked, in all probability infecting millions of people today each and every working day, some global health and fitness industry experts have said.

Reporting by Farah Master and Twinnie Siu Modifying by Lincoln Feast and Stephen Coates

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