Hong Kong’s new travel easing leaves business wanting more

Bloomberg

Hong Kong’s latest moves to ease travel into the financial hub are getting a lukewarm reception from the business community and airlines.
After months of criticism, the government is loosening a policy that suspends passenger flights for bringing in Covid-19 cases. It is also allowing all non-residents to enter the city for the first time in more than two years.
“Things remain unpredictable, things remain unmanageable,” said Michiel Mak, vice chairman of the Dutch Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong. “For businesspeople, unpredictability is the worst thing. Even if you have complied with the rules, there’s no guarantee that you can travel at all.”
While the moves suggest Hong Kong is slowly creeping towards the end of the Covid tunnel, it still isn’t enough, industry groups say, particularly when other places such as regional rival Singapore have opened their borders and removed mandatory quarantine and testing for vaccinated travellers. Those coming into Hong Kong are still subjected to a range of tests and hotel isolation.
“To have to have someone in quarantine for seven days on a business trip simply isn’t really financially viable,” said George Cautherley, vice chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong will on May 1 reduce the amount of time flight routes are banned to five days from seven for carriers found to have flown positive Covid cases. The threshold will also be raised to five infected passengers or more, from three currently. The so-called circuit breaker mechanism has been heavily criticised by business groups and spurred some airlines to pause flying to Hong Kong altogether.
David Graham, executive director of the British Chamber of Commerce in the city, said the changes coming next month are welcome developments, but the flight-suspension policy remains a major concern.
“The mechanism, even as amended, will continue to result in difficult logistical issues for both airlines and passengers,” he said. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam said there are no plans to further relax border controls and flight-suspension measures.
While flag carrier Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd has started to revise its schedule to put on more flights, airlines are wary after previous easing measures proved to be short-lived, according to people familiar with the industry.