160k passengers a day expected through airport over hoidays

Up to 160,000 passengers are expected to go through Hong Kong airport each day during the upcoming Christmas holidays, officials at the Airport Authority said, with Taipei, Shanghai and Bangkok being the top three most popular destinations.

The average daily flights heading to the top three destinations are expected to be around 70, 54 and 50, respectively, which means there will be more than one flight arriving or departing every hour.

Japan, the most popular destination among Hongkongers, is scheduled to have 44 flights daily between Hong Kong and Tokyo.

The authority said there will be more than 1,000 flights coming in and out of the SAR daily, with 760 of them carrying passengers.

It expects the traffic volume during the Christmas and New Year holidays to reach a new high and recover to about 80 percent of the pre-pandemic level.

Steven Yiu Siu-chung, the authority's executive director, said the ideal situation is to fully recover by the end of next year; however, it depends on the global economy.

"It will take a considerable amount of time for flight volumes to fully recover, and this is not just happening to Hong Kong, cities like London, Singapore, and various locations in Europe also face similar situations," he said.

When asked about the bottleneck in increasing flight capacity, Yiu said the availability of aircraft, pilots, and cabin crew plays a crucial role.

"Local airlines are actively training pilots while ground staff resources have been gradually relieved, so the Civil Aviation Department remains optimistic," he said.

However, Yiu added maintaining service standards is of utmost importance.

Meanwhile, police will implement crowd safety management measures and special traffic arrangements on Hong Kong Island and Kowloon on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Temporary road closure will be implemented in stages around Kowloon and Hong Kong Island at 6pm and 2pm respectively, on Christmas Eve.

Various roads around Tsim Sha Tsui, West Kowloon Cultural District, Hung Hom and Lan Kwai Fong will be closed.

Traffic diversions will be implemented and all car parks, including on-street parking spaces within the areas, will be temporarily suspended.

Crowd control measures to prevent stampedes will be administered.

Police warned all vehicles parked illegally would be towed away without warning.

They expect the number of people celebrating in TST to be similar to last year, at around 264,000 people.

Pedestrians and drivers celebrating Christmas in the area are advised to stay tuned to radio and television announcements.

The cold weather will continue through Christmas, with the temperature dropping to 10 degrees Celsius on Friday, but it will bounce back to around 15 to 16 degrees on Tuesday.

The winter monsoon will continue to bring cold and dry weather to the coastal areas of southern China in the next few days.

The Observatory advised the public to stay warm, as it expects the weather to remain around 10 to 12 degrees until Christmas.