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Shortage of airport workers stand in the way of HK's reopening drive
来源：shippingazette 编辑：编辑部 发布：2023/03/01 16:08:37
A SCARCITY of workers in the air industry is delaying Hong Kong's efforts to re-establish the international links vital for its role as a financial hub.
Airlines are struggling to hire staff locally, prompting carriers to put off resuming routes shuttered during the city's isolation over the past few years.
The airport is operating with 32 per cent fewer employees than before the pandemic, according to the most recent figures provided by the Airport Authority, reports Bloomberg.
"The substantial loss of manpower is the crucial factor affecting the aviation industry," said Perry Yiu, a lawmaker representing the tourism sector. "The shortage not only includes pilots, flight attendants and engineers, but also ground staff and grassroots workers."
Qantas Airways Ltd delayed the restart of flights with Melbourne by three months to mid-June because of a labour shortage at its contractor at Hong Kong International Airport, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified as the information isn't public.
Manpower constraints are making it tough for local start-up Greater Bay Airlines to add flights from Hong Kong, CEO Stanley Hui said. Even the city's in-town check-in service has yet to reopen, another sign of the slow pace of recovery.
Worker shortages mean the city faces a hard battle to get capacity back to pre-2020, when the airport was the world's third-busiest in terms of international passenger volume, according to the government.
As of January, air traffic movement was just 44 per cent of the level four years earlier, while passenger numbers was 32 per cent, data provided by the Civil Aviation Department show.
Compare that with London's Heathrow, where both air traffic and passenger volumes are more than 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. In Singapore, the number for both is around 77 per cent.
"We are now lacking hands, we need to fill vacancies," said Yolanda Yu, vice-chair of the Board of Airline Representatives of Hong Kong.
Like elsewhere during the pandemic, Hong Kong air industry workers were let go as demand for flights plunged. The workforce at Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, the city's flagship carrier, fell about 40 per cent to some 16,000 employees in the first half of 2022 from the end of 2019, according to its latest earnings report.
Yet Hong Kong was far slower than other international travel hubs in lifting its Covid restrictions, which were among the world's most extreme.
The city's transport secretary Lam Sai-hung said this month the government will work with the Airport Authority to quickly come up with measures to help with the manpower shortage. The city is also looking at ways to alleviate the issue in the medium-to-long term, finance chief, Paul Chan, said in his recent annual budget address.
One solution being floated is to bring in workers from mainland China and give them special work permits to fill vacancies at the airport, according to people familiar with the discussion.
This is a measure supported by Ms Yu, the lawmaker for the tourism sector. "I highly suggest the government consider reviewing" its labour policies or import workers from nearby regions of the mainland, she said.
Airlines are struggling to hire staff locally, prompting carriers to put off resuming routes shuttered during the city's isolation over the past few years.
The airport is operating with 32 per cent fewer employees than before the pandemic, according to the most recent figures provided by the Airport Authority, reports Bloomberg.
"The substantial loss of manpower is the crucial factor affecting the aviation industry," said Perry Yiu, a lawmaker representing the tourism sector. "The shortage not only includes pilots, flight attendants and engineers, but also ground staff and grassroots workers."
Qantas Airways Ltd delayed the restart of flights with Melbourne by three months to mid-June because of a labour shortage at its contractor at Hong Kong International Airport, according to a person with knowledge of the matter who asked not to be identified as the information isn't public.
Manpower constraints are making it tough for local start-up Greater Bay Airlines to add flights from Hong Kong, CEO Stanley Hui said. Even the city's in-town check-in service has yet to reopen, another sign of the slow pace of recovery.
Worker shortages mean the city faces a hard battle to get capacity back to pre-2020, when the airport was the world's third-busiest in terms of international passenger volume, according to the government.
As of January, air traffic movement was just 44 per cent of the level four years earlier, while passenger numbers was 32 per cent, data provided by the Civil Aviation Department show.
Compare that with London's Heathrow, where both air traffic and passenger volumes are more than 90 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. In Singapore, the number for both is around 77 per cent.
"We are now lacking hands, we need to fill vacancies," said Yolanda Yu, vice-chair of the Board of Airline Representatives of Hong Kong.
Like elsewhere during the pandemic, Hong Kong air industry workers were let go as demand for flights plunged. The workforce at Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, the city's flagship carrier, fell about 40 per cent to some 16,000 employees in the first half of 2022 from the end of 2019, according to its latest earnings report.
Yet Hong Kong was far slower than other international travel hubs in lifting its Covid restrictions, which were among the world's most extreme.
The city's transport secretary Lam Sai-hung said this month the government will work with the Airport Authority to quickly come up with measures to help with the manpower shortage. The city is also looking at ways to alleviate the issue in the medium-to-long term, finance chief, Paul Chan, said in his recent annual budget address.
One solution being floated is to bring in workers from mainland China and give them special work permits to fill vacancies at the airport, according to people familiar with the discussion.
This is a measure supported by Ms Yu, the lawmaker for the tourism sector. "I highly suggest the government consider reviewing" its labour policies or import workers from nearby regions of the mainland, she said.