Hong Kong saw 3.8m travellers pass through airport in November, as ‘steady recovery’ hailed

Hong Kong saw almost 3.8 million travellers pass through its airport in November, a 2.6 times increase compared to the same period last year.

The Airport Authority Hong Kong recorded around 3,765,000 passengers at Hong Kong International Airport last month, according to statistics published on Wednesday.

Last November, the airport saw just 1,048,000 passengers. At the time, the city still had in place Covid-19 travel restrictions that required arrivals to adhere to a three-day “medical surveillance period,” during which they could not enter businesses including restaurants, bars and gyms.

“All passenger segments experienced strong growth compared with November 2022 as passenger traffic continued its steady recovery,” the Airport Authority’s statement read.

Passenger traffic to and from Southeast Asia, mainland China and Japan recorded the most significant increases, the statement added.

Airport Authority executive director Steven Yiu said airport traffic had recovered to about 80 per cent compared to pre-Covid levels, local media reported.

Hong Kong’s tourism industry was hampered by strict Covid-19 regulations for much of the past three years, with quarantine requirements and frequent testing prompting leading industry figure the International Air Transport Association to call the city “effectively off the map.”

Travel-related Covid rules remained in place until December 2022, while the mandatory mask rule was only scrapped in March.

The city has since embarked on campaigns in an attempt to boost tourism to the city, including the Hello Hong Kong initiative that saw free flight giveaways.

According to the Tourism Board, the city recorded almost 26.8 million visitor arrivals from January to October this year, up from around 330,200 in the same period in 2022.

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