By Farah Master and Twinnie Siu
HONG KONG (Reuters) -Hong Kong’s government has asked Japan to withdraw a COVID-19 restriction that requires passenger flights from the financial hub to land at only 4 designated Japanese airports, saying the choice will impact about 60,000 passengers.
The US, India, Italy and Taiwan now require mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China after Beijing’s decision last month to lift stringent zero-COVID policies, fuelling a surge in cases across mainland China.
Hong Kong, home to greater than 7 million people, is recording around 20,000 coronavirus cases each day but on Thursday lifted its COVID restrictions for the primary time in three years.
Japan, which is a top travel destination for Hong Kong people, said it could limit flights from Hong Kong, Macau and mainland China to Tokyo’s two airports, plus Osaka and Nagoya from Friday. The choice comes during a peak travel season and ahead of the Lunar Latest Yr holiday which begins Jan. 22.
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“It is known that around 250 outbound flights of Hong Kong airlines will likely be affected between December 30, 2022 and the top of January 2023, affecting around 60,000 passengers,” the federal government said in an announcement late on Wednesday.
City leader John Lee said the federal government had indicated to the Japanese government it was upset.
“We predict that Hong Kong people ought to be allowed to make use of not only these 4 airports,” Lee said.
Flights of Hong Kong airlines can still carry passengers back to Hong Kong from various airports in Japan, the federal government said, to “ensure the sleek return of Hong Kong people from Japan and to minimise the impact to Hong Kong travellers attributable to the incident.”
Hong Kong’s flagship carrier Cathay Pacific Airways said in an announcement on Thursday it could proceed to operate flights to Japan, even though it would cut back these to 65 per week, down 20% from its planned schedule for Jan 2023.
HK Express, which is owned by Cathay, said in a separate statement it could only give you the chance to operate 60 scheduled flights per week to destinations in Japan as a result of the restrictions, prompting the cancellation of 41 flights from Hong Kong to Japan in January 2023.
Hong Kong Airlines and Peach Aviation announced they’d cancel some flight routes due to the foundations.
China in December began dismantling the world’s strictest COVID regime of lockdowns and extensive testing, putting its battered economy heading in the right direction for a whole re-opening next 12 months.
The lifting of restrictions, following widespread protests against them, means COVID is spreading largely unchecked and certain infecting tens of millions of individuals a day, based on some international health experts.
(Reporting by Farah Master and Twinnie Siu; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Stephen Coates)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
