Low-cost carrier HK Express said on 12 October that it carried 45 per cent more Mainland passengers into Hong Kong during China’s National Day Golden Week (1–7 October) than in the same holiday period last year. The airline carried over 13,000 Mainland travellers on its six China routes on the peak day of 2 October and recorded a 1.6-fold jump in Mainland passengers transiting through Hong Kong to other Asian destinations. Average load factors exceeded 85 per cent on the Wuxi, Chongqing and Fuzhou services, reflecting what the carrier called “robust pent-up demand for short-haul leisure and business trips”. The uptick coincides with the opening of the revamped Huanggang Port and the relaxation of e-Channel enrolment rules, making multimodal itineraries more attractive. For Hong Kong’s visitor economy, the numbers are encouraging: retail analysts estimate every Mainland leisure traveller spends about HK$5,400 per trip, suggesting the carrier alone injected roughly HK$320 million into local shops and restaurants during the week. Hotels near the airport and in Kowloon East reported occupancy rates above 90 per cent, partly buoyed by travellers catching morning departures after a day’s shopping. Corporate travel managers also took note. Financial firms shuttling staff between Shenzhen and Hong Kong now have more flight-time options, enabling same-day out-and-back itineraries that were hard to schedule during pandemic restrictions. HK Express plans to add a second daily rotation on its Ningbo route from December to capture year-end demand. Travellers connecting through Hong Kong should remember that same-day air-to-land transfers via Huanggang now take as little as 45 minutes, provided they pre-register for collaborative e-gates.
Source: GMT Eight
