Hong Kong News

Nonpartisan, Noncommercial, unconstrained.
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Hong Kong airline worker shortage hits city’s push to reopen

Hong Kong airline worker shortage hits city’s push to reopen

Hong Kong’s goal to reclaim its spot as Asia’s premier financial hub is being tested by a scarcity of workers in the air industry that’s vital for reestablishing the city’s international links.
The damage caused by years of closed borders is proving hard to undo. The number of workers employed at the Norman Foster-designed airport at the end of December was just 68% of the pre-pandemic level, according to the most recent figures provided by the Airport Authority.

Airlines are struggling to hire staff locally, prompting carriers to put off resuming routes shuttered during the pandemic.

Qantas Airways Ltd. delayed the restart of flights with Melbourne by three months to mid-June because of a labor shortage at its contractor at Hong Kong International Airport, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified as the information isn’t public.

Manpower constraints are making it tough for local start-up Greater Bay Airlines to add flights from Hong Kong. Even the city’s in-town check-in service has yet to reopen, another sign of the slow pace of recovery.

“The substantial loss of manpower is the crucial factor affecting the aviation industry,” said Perry Yiu, a lawmaker representing the tourism sector. “The shortage not only includes pilots, flight attendants and engineers, but also ground staff and grassroots workers.”

Worker shortages mean the city faces a hard battle to get capacity back to pre-2020, when the airport was the world’s third-busiest in terms of international passenger volume, according to the government.

As of January, air traffic movement was just 44% of the level four years earlier, while passenger numbers was 32%, data provided by the Civil Aviation Department show.

Compare that with London’s Heathrow, where both air traffic and passenger volumes are more than 90% of pre-pandemic levels. In Singapore, the number for both is around 77%.

“We are now lacking hands, we need to fill vacancies,” said Yolanda Yu, vice-chair of the Board of Airline Representatives of Hong Kong.

Like elsewhere during the pandemic, Hong Kong air industry workers were let go as demand for flights plunged. The workforce at Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., the city’s flagship carrier, fell about 40% to some 16,000 employees in the first half of 2022 from the end of 2019, according to its latest earnings report.

Yet Hong Kong was far slower than other international travel hubs in lifting its Covid restrictions, which were among the world’s most extreme. The city only removed mandatory hotel quarantine for arrivals in September, while those visiting after that still faced regular testing and bans on eating in restaurants until late last year.

The lengthier curbs meant a greater impact on the local airline industry, which also needs to compete with employers in services sectors in a tight labor market.

Since August 2018, Hong Kong’s workforce has dropped about 5% to 3.8 million people, according to the latest official figures.

Adding pressure is the ongoing exodus of residents. The population fell by 187,300, or 2.5%, to 7.33 million from the end of 2019 through 2022.

The city’s workforce is also aging, while the birth rate in 2021 was the lowest on record going back to 1971. The economy is struggling, having shrunk in three of the past four years.

The government recognizes the problems facing the airline industry, which is key to the city’s recovery. The air transport sector and tourists arriving by air previously contributed about $33 billion a year, accounting for about 10% of Hong Kong’s gross domestic product, according to a report published by the International Air Transport Association in 2018.

The city’s transport secretary Lam Sai-hung said this month the government will work with the Airport Authority to quickly come up with measures to help with the manpower shortage.

One solution being floated is to bring in workers from mainland China and give them special work permits to fill vacancies at the airport, according to people familiar with the discussion.

This is a measure supported by Yu, the lawmaker for the tourism sector.

“I highly suggest the government consider reviewing” its labor policies or import workers from nearby regions of the mainland, Yu said.

Businesses are currently allowed to import workers to fill jobs they face “genuine difficulties” recruiting for locally, according to city labor rules. But the number is small, with just 3,000 low-skilled workers imported in 2021.

That’s about 1% of the number of similar foreign workers that rival Singapore brought in to fill labor-intensive jobs like construction, or other semi-skilled workers.

As for pilot shortages, carriers should focus on training cadets locally, the transport secretary told lawmakers on Feb. 15.

For now, airlines and passengers have to be patient.

In the meantime, leisure and business travelers face the chance of ticket prices remaining elevated if demand rebounds, according to Joanna Lu, head of consultancy Asia for aviation data firm Cirium.

“The recovery is unlikely to be sudden or frictionless,” she said.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Hong Kong News
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Steve Jobs' Son Launches Venture Capital Firm With $200 Million For Cancer Treatments
Google reshuffles Assistant unit, lays off some staffers, to 'supercharge' products with A.I.
End of Viagra? FDA approved a gel against erectile dysfunction
UK sanctions Russians judges over dual British national Kara-Murza's trial
US restricts visa-free travel for Hungarian passport holders because of security concerns
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Political leader from South Africa, Julius Malema, led violent racist chants at a massive rally on Saturday
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
'I am not your servant': IndiGo crew member, passenger get into row over airline meal
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Spanish Citizenship Granted to Iranian chess player who removed hijab
US Senate Republican Mitch McConnell freezes up, leaves press conference
Speaker McCarthy says the United States House of Representatives is getting ready to impeach Joe Biden.
San Francisco car crash
This camera man is a genius
3D ad in front of Burj Khalifa
Next level gaming
BMW driver…
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
×