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Hong Kong government to announce “relief measures” as part of economic stimulus
August 16th 2019
Arrivals drop one third in first ten days of August as local protests persist. In Japan, typhoon forces 630 flight cancellations. Read More »
Airport Authority Hong Kong, the operator of Hong Kong International Airport, will announce "relief measures" as part of an economic stimulus package for the troubled Special Administrative Region (SAR).
HK SAR’s financial secretary Paul Chan Mo-po announced the intended measures in an emergency budget officially intended to support the SAR as recession looms. Unstated was that local political turmoil is undermining confidence in Hong Kong. Chan detailed various measures but did not include specifics or when further details would be available for the aviation part of the relief measures.
Secretary for commerce and economic development Edward Yau Tang-wah said visitors to Hong Kong dropped by a third in the first 10 days of August, but did not specify if the figure was for all modes of arrival or only some. Most visitors to Hong Kong arrive via land borders with mainland China.
The first 10 days of August include two days of protests, August 9-10 but proceeded further protests on August 11-13, when flight cancellations were highest. Since August 9, there were 979 cancelled flights, including 421 on Tuesday. Before Tuesday’s disruption, the airport was in the legal process to obtain an injunction to limit protests to two designated areas in the arrivals hall. It has since secured the injunction.
There were additional flight cancellations in the region in advance of a typhoon making landfall on Shikoku in Japan. More than 630 flights were cancelled in the domestic Japanese market and between Japan and Shanghai and Taipei.
