How Hong Kong's Airport Capacity Stacks Against Other Cities

Hong Kong is struggling to increase its airport capacity

See this chart? It tracks the capacity of several international airports in seeing if they are back to 100 percent capacity post-pandemic.

You can see Singapore Changi Airport represented by a black line on the graph and it has already broken through the 100 percent mark along with London Heathrow in yellow.

New York's John F Kennedy International Airport (green line) was well over 100 percent in November, but declining slightly at the moment, while Incheon Airport in Seoul is at 99.9 percent (pink line).

Haneda Airport in Tokyo? Well it hit 100 percent last May and was already at 110 percent in mid September.

Where's Hong Kong International Airport (blue)?

In December it reached a high of around 75 percent, but it has since plunged in January (no figures yet for February). 

This is what happens when there is a clear road map out of the pandemic by reopening faster. Around Christmastime the airline was short 500 pilots to fly Cathay Pacific planes and that resulted in numerous cancellations which left a bad impression with passengers, new and loyal.

While Cathay recently announced a HK$9.78 billion (US$1.3 billion) net profit last year, it doesn't believe it will return to 2019 capacity levels until 2025, and so HKIA's blue line on the graph won't be hitting 100 percent anytime soon...