HONG KONG's flights are the most limited in two decades as the number of residents wanting to flee the city of 7.4 million surges, reports Bloomberg News.
Before the Covid crisis, a passenger plane would leave hong Kong every three minutes, making it as busy as New York's John F Kennedy International Airport.
Nowadays, a whole hour could pass without a single departure.
Hong Kong authorities recently declared they would mass test the entire city in a bid to root out cases and that schools would remain suspended.
As a result of high Covid cases, airlines are planning only 592 flights out of Hong Kong for all of February, an average of only 21 a day.
That's the fewest on schedules stretching back to August 2003.
Prior to the pandemic, there were 14,000 services taking off from Hong Kong every month.
The dearth of overseas connections is deepening Hong Kong's isolation as it mirrors mainland China's strict Covid-Zero policy on controlling the virus.
Although other nations are opening up to co-exist with Covid, China is still trying to wall out cases with border, flight curbs, and mandatory traveller quarantines.
Hong Kong Airlines Ltd declared it was operating two daily flights to Shanghai until the end of March.
However, its website shows all tickets are sold out except March 25, despite upgrading one service to a wide-body aircraft to cater to strong demand.
'Seat capacity is kept at 50 per cent for flights departing from Hong Kong to comply with local authorities' latest pandemic preventive measures,' said the company.
SeaNews Turkey
Before the Covid crisis, a passenger plane would leave hong Kong every three minutes, making it as busy as New York's John F Kennedy International Airport.
Nowadays, a whole hour could pass without a single departure.
Hong Kong authorities recently declared they would mass test the entire city in a bid to root out cases and that schools would remain suspended.
As a result of high Covid cases, airlines are planning only 592 flights out of Hong Kong for all of February, an average of only 21 a day.
That's the fewest on schedules stretching back to August 2003.
Prior to the pandemic, there were 14,000 services taking off from Hong Kong every month.
The dearth of overseas connections is deepening Hong Kong's isolation as it mirrors mainland China's strict Covid-Zero policy on controlling the virus.
Although other nations are opening up to co-exist with Covid, China is still trying to wall out cases with border, flight curbs, and mandatory traveller quarantines.
Hong Kong Airlines Ltd declared it was operating two daily flights to Shanghai until the end of March.
However, its website shows all tickets are sold out except March 25, despite upgrading one service to a wide-body aircraft to cater to strong demand.
'Seat capacity is kept at 50 per cent for flights departing from Hong Kong to comply with local authorities' latest pandemic preventive measures,' said the company.
SeaNews Turkey
