Airlines rejoice as Hong Kong-Japan travel surges to 90% of pre-pandemic levels

Despite rising airfares between Hong Kong and Japan, demand for air travel is showing no sign of slowing down, with more than 45 percent of searches for flights departing from Hong Kong in July and August showing flights to Japan. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) highlighted that this rate is more than double that of the same period before the pandemic.

The Japanese cities that received the most attention in these searches were Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Okinawa. These cities lag behind places like London, Seoul, Phuket and Kaohsiung in popularity. Although bookings reflect great interest, Hong Kong tourists to Japan in June reached nearly 90% of pre-pandemic levels, making them the fourth largest tourist group.

Japan is a big market for Hong Kong

An estimated 2.07 million tourists traveled to Japan for the month, while South Korea topped the list with about 545,100 visitors. Although the gap is larger, Hong Kong still serves 186,300 people. But has Japan always been such an important market for Hong Kong, or is this just pent-up demand during the pandemic?

When analyzing capacity from Hong Kong to Japan in the pre-pandemic period, Japan consistently ranks among the top five countries with the highest capacity. The country often has more capacity than Singapore, Seoul or even London. Compared to pre-pandemic levels, Japanese cities are recovering the fastest in terms of the total number of seats recovered.

Hong Kong Airlines is taking advantage

While rising passenger demand for air travel options between Hong Kong and Japan is helping to accelerate the pace of recovery, airlines in both countries play an equally important role in providing essential flight services. This is especially true for Hong Kong airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong Airlines, HK Express and Great Bay Air.

For these airlines, resuming and increasing flights to Japan could speed up their post-pandemic recovery after years of losses. Cathay Pacific, for example, carried nearly 6.3 million passengers from January to May this year, and Lavinia Lau, the airline’s chief customer and commercial officer, highlighted that Japan and Thailand were the biggest contributors.

Photo: Vincenzo Pace I Simple Flight

Great Bay Air also launched its first two Japanese routes to Tokyo, Narita and Osaka, while Hong Kong Airlines recently followed suit with a new service to Nagoya, which will be upgraded to a daily service next month . The new route complements the airline’s extensive Japan route network, which includes three daily flights to Tokyo Narita and Osaka.

The airline also offers 2 daily flights to Okinawa, 1 daily flight to Fukuoka and 3 weekly flights to Sapporo. Finally, HK Express, a low-cost carrier with more than 90 weekly flights to numerous Japanese airports, is expected to become Japan’s second-largest Hong Kong-based carrier this November, after Cathay Pacific.

Japanese operators are also on board

As Hong Kong Airlines increases its presence in Japan, some Japanese airlines are also taking advantage of the growing demand for connectivity between the two countries. But Japan Airlines cannot offer the same number of weekly flights and overall capacity from Japan to Hong Kong as its Hong Kong counterparts.

Photo: Kittikun Yoksap | Shutterstock

In the case of Japan Airlines, the airline only offers direct flights to Hong Kong from Tokyo’s two main airports. All Nippon Airways, on the other hand, offers the same service with the added flight service from Osaka. That leaves only low-cost carrier Peach Aviation, which only offers direct flights from Osaka to Hong Kong. Despite having less capacity, these airlines still enjoy better load factors on these flights.

the bottom line

Nine airports across Japan are currently served jointly by seven airlines from Hong Kong and Japan, but this will be rolled out in November this year; this number will be expanded to 12 airports – by Hong Kong Airlines, in particular HK Express Provided to meet growing demand, Tokyo’s Narita and Haneda airports account for an estimated 40% of Hong Kong’s Japan flights.

Source: South China Morning Post