Hong Kong has fully restored global aviation hub status, IATA chief says Hong Kong has fully regained its status as an international aviation hub, the head of an international association has said, arguing that some foreign airlines’ failure to restore capacity to pre-pandemic levels in the city is due to supply chain and airspace issues rather than geopolitics. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), told the Post on Tuesday in Geneva that he stood by his earlier convictions about Hong Kong restoring its world-class aviation hub status by the end of this year. “I think so [about Hong Kong regaining its aviation status]. And you know Cathay [Pacific Airways] will be at 100 per cent of 2019 capacity at the end of this year or from January next year,” he said at IATA’s headquarters in Geneva. He pointed out the issue dogging the city’s aviation industry had more to do with supply chains and airspace issues than lacking attractiveness or geopolitical reasons. “It’s because of the lack of availability of widebody aircraft … because of the additional maintenance time and checks that the existing aircraft require, much more so than anything to do with the market. According to data from aviation analytics company Cirium, 86 airlines operated out of Hong Kong in July 2019, before the Covid-19 pandemic brought international air travel to a halt. Now only 71 airlines operate out of the airport. The industry’s supply chains have been disrupted because of the shortage of parts and components for aircraft and engines from countries engaged in conflicts such as Russia, Ukraine and Israel amid rising costs. Vivian Cheung Kar-fay, acting CEO of the Airport Authority, earlier also said Russian airspace restrictions had “continued to be a big issue” that prevented Hong Kong’s airport from returning to pre-Covid capacity as the city’s new long-haul routes could not go over the country’s airspace following Moscow’s decision to close off its skies to various Western nations in 2022. About whether the incoming US administration of president-elect Donald Trump would affect Hong Kong’s aviation industry, Walsh emphasised a strong demand for travelling in China. “We are seeing an appetite from the US carriers to return or increase capacity into the Chinese market. The closure of Russian airspace is a factor in those decisions as well, as is the availability of widebody aircraft,” he said. “My message, though, is that the underlying demand for air travel continues to be strong and continues to grow. So I expect things to return to a more stable environment, but it is going to take a little bit of time. And it’s not all geopolitics.” However, the airline trade body pointed out that Trump’s administration would cause several significant uncertainties to the global aviation industry with tariffs and trade wars likely to dampen demand for air cargo and potentially affect business travel. For the Aisa-Pacific region where China accounts for more than 40 per cent of the region’s traffic, the airline body said passenger demand grew by 18.6 per cent this year, fuelled in part by market stimulus from visa requirement relaxations for entry to several countries including China, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. It said Chinese carriers reported net losses in the first half of 2024, due to supply chain issues, oversupply in the domestic market and a limitation of 100 weekly frequencies from China to the US, a third lower than pre-pandemic levels. Asked if IATA would encourage the US to accelerate the international certification of China’s home-grown C919 passenger jet by the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac) to help resolve the supply chain issue, Walsh said the manufacturer should better focus on serving the mainland domestic market first to ease a significant backlog of orders. IATA also forecast the global airline industry would make a net profit of US$36.6 billion next year, up from the expected net profit of US$31.5 billion this year. The trade lobby said the improvement was driven by lower oil prices, the maintenance of high load factors above 83 per cent and tightly controlled costs with airlines managing to achieve growth following the “extraordinary” pandemic recovery. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/transport/article/3290239/hong-kong-has-fully-restored-global-aviation-hub-status-iata-chief-says (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post