Hong Kong, China's anti-epidemic measures adjusted, airfare search quadrupled, the impact of the return home through Hong Kong transit geometry

Read Time:3 Minute, 54 Second

This afternoon, Hong Kong, China announced that starting next Monday (September 26), the mandatory hotel quarantine measures for arriving passengers will be lifted and the quarantine measures will be changed from the current “3+4” to “0+3”, meaning that overseas and Taiwan arrivals will only be subject to home medical surveillance. Three days.

The four new arrival measures also include, after receiving the nucleic acid test at the airport, arrivals can go home or to the hotel without waiting for the results, or they can choose their own transportation. The “yellow code” will be issued for three days after arrival, during which they will be allowed to go out, but will still not be allowed to enter some places such as restaurants and bars; on the fourth day after arrival, they will receive the results of the previous day’s nucleic acid test, and those who are negative will be issued a “blue code.

In addition, the 48-hour pre-boarding nucleic acid test will be abolished and replaced by the Rapid Access Test (RAT); the restriction that unvaccinated citizens cannot travel to Hong Kong will be lifted, but non-Hong Kong residents still need to meet the vaccination requirements or obtain a medical exemption before they can board the plane; the “Easy Entry” and “Easy Return” will not be limited. The “Easy Entry” and “Easy Return” are not limited and are also applicable to people in Mainland China and Macau, China.

After the announcement of the above measures, the instantaneous search volume of international flights to Hong Kong, China on the GoHo platform increased 4 times. The United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Thailand, Russia and Malaysia were the highest ranked departure destinations for searches.

Christoph Meyer, Lufthansa Group General Manager of Sales for Hong Kong, Macau and South China, also told reporters that the policy relaxation for passengers would increase demand for travel to and from Hong Kong, China. “Two hours after the announcement of the new policy, we have received many inquiries from European travel agencies for air tickets.”

It is worth noting that from the second half of this year, a new transit back home channel was opened: the Hong Kong government will be required to vaccinate people entering the centralized quarantine time shortened to seven days hotel quarantine (after further shortened to three days hotel quarantine and four days home medical monitoring), which means that some travelers abroad, although they can not directly in the Hong Kong airport transfer back to the mainland, but can use the passport Transit visa-free stay of 7 days policy, first in Hong Kong quarantine 7 days, and then back to the mainland. However, after returning to the mainland, they also need to follow the requirements of each city for centralized quarantine.

Although it takes more isolation time to return home through this route, but because Hong Kong does not have “five one” policy restrictions on international flights, Europe and the United States routes are basically daily flights, direct flights from abroad to Hong Kong ticket prices than direct flights to mainland cities to be much cheaper, and in the official website of the airline company can buy directly, so there have been many foreign travelers Choose to return to the mainland via Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has just announced new measures, which means that after landing in Hong Kong no longer need to be isolated in the hotel, but after entering Hong Kong to meet the flight before take-off there are 5-8 hours of nucleic acid sampling test can take the plane back to the mainland. Therefore, many airline sources told reporters that the new measures will also prompt more foreign passengers to choose to return to the mainland via Hong Kong.

In the recent month, as Hong Kong back to the mainland cities have increased the number of flights (such as Hong Kong to Shanghai in August or a week, is now three classes a week), Hong Kong back to the mainland flight tickets also plummeted, economy class fares are within 2,000 yuan, while a month ago, due to the number of flights back to the mainland in Hong Kong is not much, leading to many scalpers hoarding tickets to occupy seats Hong Kong to the mainland route, a full price Two or three thousand Hong Kong-Mainland economy class tickets, often coaxed to nearly 10,000 yuan.

However, some industry insiders expect that, with the implementation of new anti-epidemic measures in Hong Kong, the number of people returning to the mainland from abroad via Hong Kong will further push up the price of air tickets from Hong Kong to the mainland.