Hong Kong to reopen downtown airport check-in service next month

After being cordoned off for more than three years, check-in counters at Hong Kong Station are expected to open on July 5. - PHOTO: SCREENGRABS FROM GOOGLE MAPS vis The Straits Times/ANN

HONG KONG, June 26 (Bloomberg): Hong Kong is poised to allow airport check-in services in the heart of the city again, according to people familiar with the matter, reviving a system that epitomized convenience for travelers before the financial hub’s Covid isolation.

After being cordoned off for more than three years, check-in counters at Hong Kong Station are expected to open on July 5, the people said, enabling some airline passengers to drop off their luggage downtown at any point during the day of their flight and then collect it at their final destination.

A decision hasn’t been made on restarting check-in at Kowloon and Tsing Yi stations, the people said, asking not to be identified because discussions are private.

In-town check-in was suspended in April 2020 as Hong Kong imposed strict curbs on international travel, including weeks of mandatory quarantine in designated facilities for anyone flying in. Even though Hong Kong dropped its last Covid restrictions months ago, a shortage of workers has prevented train operator MTR Corp. and the airport from restarting the bag-drop service.

MTR, Airport Authority Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. didn’t respond to emailed requests for comment.

Hong Kong is one of only a handful of places in the world that have in-town check-in - others include Taipei and Kuala Lumpur. Restarting the service will lift one of the last vestiges of the pandemic from a city that persisted with Covid restrictions longer than most - a policy that damaged its reputation as a freewheeling, easy-to-navigate financial hub.

Visitor numbers are still way off pre-pandemic levels. Cathay, Hong Kong’s main airline, doesn’t expect to get to 2019 levels of passenger capacity until the end of next year.

Express-train services from Hong Kong Station to the airport, a journey of 24 minutes for HK$110 ($14) per adult, continued to run throughout the pandemic, albeit it at lower frequencies. - Bloomberg