Hongkongers can expect airfares for long-haul flights, especially to the United States and Canada, to remain on the “high side” for some time because of limited supply although prices for regional destinations have returned to pre-pandemic levels, industry players have said.
Ronald Wu Keng-hou, executive director of Gray Line Tours and a Tourism Board member, said on Friday that airfares for short-haul destinations such as Southeast Asia were back to normal levels due to increasing supply, intense competition between budget airlines and a decline in demand for travel.
“There is no more ‘revenge-travel’ as many people have used up their holidays and there is more choice due to rising competition which drives down ticket prices,” he said, referring to people’s pent-up desire to go abroad after three years of the pandemic.
But Wu said it would take more time for long-haul airfares to fall.
The number of long-haul flights from the city had only reached about 60 per cent of pre-pandemic levels as several overseas airlines had exited the Hong Kong market during the pandemic, including American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia, he noted.
“A lot of long-haul flights have not resumed while some overseas airlines have yet to return to Hong Kong. With inadequate supply, airfares for long-haul flights are still on the high side, especially those to the US or Canada,” he said.
Checks by the Post on Friday evening found that round-trip economy-class tickets from Hong Kong to Tokyo on Cathay Pacific Airways for next Thursday cost HK3,972 (US$486.29), and HK$4,227 on the carrier’s budget arm, HK Express, for December 21.
Round-trip economy-class tickets for Cathay flights to London next Thursday range from HK7,658 to HK$10,012 and HK$9,974 to HK10,002 on December 21.
The price tag for Cathay flights to New York has dropped to between HK$18,821 and HK$23,386 next Thursday and to as low as HK13,248 on December 21.
Lily Agonoy, managing director of Jebsen Travel, said that in December passengers could expect short- or long-haul airfares to gradually normalise to destinations such as Tokyo, Thailand or London, but that she was uncertain whether this was caused by fuel surcharge adjustments or any specific reason.
“Airfares will be adjusted based on supply and demand, like Vancouver, fare reductions have been rare so far,” she said.
“Long-haul routes involve complex logistics, including fuel costs, aircraft availability, and geopolitical considerations. Airlines adjust prices based on these factors.”
Wu said Russian airspace restrictions “continued to be a big issue” for airfares.
Aircraft on new long-haul routes from the city cannot fly over Russian airspace, following Moscow’s retaliatory move to close off its skies to 36 Western nations in 2022.
The Western countries had closed off their respective airspace to Russian aircraft following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“The decline in long-haul ticket prices hinges on the supply,” Wu said.
“Only when prices come down will there be more long-haul tourists coming to Hong Kong, which will help boost tourism dollars and rejuvenate the local economy.”
On Wednesday, Cathay Pacific CEO Ronald Lam Siu-por said short-haul airfares had normalised while those for long-haul trips had fallen by more than 20 per cent compared with last year, except for US flights.
Ticket prices for trips to the United States remained high because of limited supply of direct flights between the US and mainland China, causing a flood of passengers from across the border to fly there via Cathay in Hong Kong, he said.
“It will take a longer while for long-haul air fares to return to normal,” he said.
“We are working hard to increase direct flight services to the US. In the next few months, we will fully resume the number of daily flights to three to New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco.”
Lam said a daily flight to Chicago and Boston would also resume.
“We expect that prices for these long-haul flights will further go down as we gradually increase our capacity.”
