Cathay says new COVID rules will boost traffic

Cathay Pacific said it welcomed the Hong Kong SAR government’s latest measures to facilitate travel to Hong Kong, especially the decision to remove the Amber Code restrictions under the Vaccine Pass for inbound persons entering Hong Kong effective tomorrow, 14 December 2022. The adjustments will help further boost sentiment for travel, especially among inbound visitors, thereby facilitating the resumption of travel activities and strengthening of network connectivity at the Hong Kong aviation hub. The Cathay Pacific Group, which includes passenger airlines Cathay Pacific and HK Express, has already added about 3,000 passenger flight sectors in the fourth quarter of this year. This includes Cathay Pacific resuming flights to popular destinations such as Tokyo (Haneda), Denpasar (Bali) and Zurich in November, as well as Sapporo, Fukuoka, Penang and Dhaka in December. More popular destinations are set to be resumed in 2023, including Phuket and Nagoya in January. Meanwhile, HK Express has resumed flights to Tokyo (Haneda), Chiang Mai and Da Nang in December, with services to Jeju and Busan in the pipeline for January. “The group remains fully committed to rebuilding the connectivity of the Hong Kong international aviation hub,” the airline said. “As a group, we are on track to achieve our target of operating up to one-third of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity levels by the end of 2022. We anticipate that we will be operating around 70 percent of pre-pandemic passenger flight capacity by the end of 2023, with an aim to return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024. For Editorial Inquiries Contact: Editor Matt Driskill at [email protected] For Advertising Inquiries Contact: Head of Sales Kay Rolland at [email protected]