Originally Posted by
jonessher
T1 has lounge access issues to deal with if moving airlines from T1 to T2, so moving all low cost carriers including UO is a sensible move. Afterall, as discussed, travelling on 1 apm vs 2 apm (at least in my opinion) will not make a huge difference when passengers select their flights and that's what CX considered to be important. This is a done deal and is reaffirmed again and again by HKIA, CX group and UO.
For other airlines moving, HKIA has not announced the full lists of airlines moving, but im sure that PRC airlines (except CA), South East Asian Airlines (non star or CX related) and Skyteam airlines are potential candidates for moving to T2.
I think there is one non-aviation issue to drive HKIA authority moving UO to T2 rather than other FSC:
retail in T1.
More than half of the HKIA's revenues are from non-aviation items, namely retail. There are hundreds of retail shops located in T1 and many of them are luxury stores. And as you can imagine, sales from luxury stores are mainly contributed by passengers on FSC, not LCC. With the overall passenger volume not yet returning to pre-Covid level, any split of FSC passengers will further hurt the sales of luxury stores and the existence of those newly-built multi-story mansions by LV and Chanel does not make sense any more.
And don't forget that the HK$140 billion three runway system is fully funded by HKIA itself. HKIA really needs more revenues from retail. T2 is a smaller terminal with capacity of 30 million per year while T1 at 75 million per year, I think their current approach is moving some LCCs to T2 first with little impact on T1 retail sales, making T1 great again with fully occupied shops, and gradually moving the incrementally increased passengers from FSC to T2. This could benefit the HKIA's financial conditions, maintain and improve the FSC passenger experience but LCCs are to be sacrificed.