Imported laborers set to arrive in Oct to handle peak travel seasons: Airport Authority chief

The first batch of imported airport staff is expected to arrive in October to relieve the pressure of manpower shortage during the peak season of Christmas and New Year, the Airport Authority said.

Fred Lam Tin-fuk, chief executive officer of the Airport Authority Hong Kong, said Sunday in a radio program that 20 airlines hoped to increase the flights to Hong Kong over the past three months. However, the plans fell through due to the lack of ground crew in the city.

He expected the laborers will be brought in as early as October and to start training in order to be in time to fulfil the demands in the upcoming Christmas and New Year peak seasons.

Lam said the lack of manpower, especially the ground services, has hindered the travel industry's recovery progress. He also emphasized the importing scheme is just a short-term measure.

He added that importing foreign labor would not cause the local workers to lose their jobs but give them a chance to manage the new staff by acting as team leaders.

Twenty thousand construction and transport workers will be arriving from the mainland and overseas to ease labor shortages. The cap on imported transport workers will be 8,000, which includes 6,300 for the aviation sector.