The number of air travellers visiting Hong Kong over the Christmas holiday could reach 200,000 a day, a senior Airport Authority official has estimated, adding the daily number of flights had returned to “normal” pre-pandemic levels.
Steven Yiu Siu-chung, the authority’s executive director, said on Friday at a two-day recruitment event that both the daily number of visitors and flights were returning to pre-Covid levels.
Soon after the launch of the three-runway system on November 28, the authority received applications for 1,150 flights a day – close to the daily 1,200 recorded before the pandemic, he said.
Yiu also said the airport could expect about 200,000 travellers a day at the peak of the holiday season.
“We can say that we are already back to normal,” he said.
The authority said the peak travel season would begin on the afternoon of December 20 and was expected to run until December 27 or as late as December 29.