HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s government said on Thursday (Dec 29) that Japan would let passenger flights from the city land in three more airports – Hokkaido, Fukuoka and Okinawa – provided that no passengers aboard had been in mainland China for the prior seven days, but said the condition was “unreasonable”.
Japan had said it would limit flights from Hong Kong, Macao and China to Tokyo’s two airports, plus Osaka and Nagoya from Friday. The decision came during a peak travel season and ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday which begins Jan 21.
Still, flights of Hong Kong airlines can carry passengers back to Hong Kong from airports in Japan, the government said, to ensure their smooth return and “minimise the impact to Hong Kong travellers caused by the incident.”
Hong Kong had on Wednesday asked Japan to withdraw the COVID-19 restriction that allows passenger flights from the financial hub to land only at four designated airports, saying the decision would affect about 60,000 passengers.
“It is understood that around 250 outbound flights of Hong Kong airlines will be affected between Dec 30, 2022 and the end of January 2023, affecting around 60,000 passengers,” the government said in a statement.
India, Italy, Taiwan and the United States require mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China after Beijing’s decision last month to lift stringent zero-COVID policies that fuelled a surge in infections across mainland China.
Hong Kong, home to more than 7 million people, is recording around 20,000 coronavirus cases a day but lifted its COVID-19 curbs on Thursday for the first time in three years.
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