LNY travel rush: 221,000 crossings by 10am, airport busiest checkpoint

More than 221,000 passenger trips were recorded at Hong Kong’s control points by 10am on Saturday as the Lunar New Year travel rush gathered pace, with the airport handling the largest share of traffic.

The Immigration Department said that as of 10am, a total of 221,322 passenger movements had been logged across all control points. Of these, 136,464 were departures and 84,858 were arrivals, indicating a strong outbound flow ahead of the holiday.

The airport was the busiest checkpoint, processing 47,257 passenger trips during the period. It was followed by the Lo Wu Control Point, which recorded 29,999 movements, and the Hong Kong West Kowloon high-speed rail station, with 29,503 crossings.

Outbound travelers were predominantly Hong Kong residents, who accounted for 117,228 departures. By contrast, 34,257 Hong Kong residents returned to the city during the same period.

On the arrivals side, mainland visitors formed the largest group of incoming travelers, with 42,863 entries recorded by mid-morning.

Travel flows are expected to remain high in the days leading up to Lunar New Year, as residents head out for holidays and family visits while visitors arrive for festive celebrations.