In-Town Check-in
 

Hi All,
Not strictly CX but seems the most relevant page ;)

Anyone HK insiders know when/if in-town check-in will be re-opening?

Apologies if this thread already exists - mods feel free to merge if so

Unlike the Airport Express hotel shuttles, the Airport Express webpage still shows in-town check-in as suspended rather than cancelled, so it's probably coming back. But all aspects of the aviation business in HK are having extreme difficulty getting enough staff to ramp back up to pre-Covid levels, so I guess that "nice to haves" like ITCI are somewhat lower down the priority list than cabin crew or airport ground staff for the airlines.

My understanding after a visit to HK last week is that in-town check-in will be restarting, it's just a question of when.

I have been told early August - but this was not an official Cathay announcement...likely to be correct though.

When there is shortage of manpower at the airport, especially ground staff, I don’t think it’s coming back too soon.

What is the reason for the shortage of manpower, especially ground staff? These sound like relatively easy jobs (unlike pilots or cabin crew) to me.

Lots of people realised during Covid that working long hours on nasty shift patterns for relatively little money was not necessarily their best option in life. Many of the people laid off have found better things to do. And many, many people, especially those who can converse in English, continue to leave HK every month to seek out less politically oppressive places to live.

The second factor is plausible. But I don't quite understand the first one. The aviation industry in other parts of the world has recovered quickly, especially in the US and China. Why are aviation jobs particularly unattractive for HK people?

Some reasons I can think of include:
Long commute to/from airport in addition to long work hours, whereas vacancies are plenty in urban areas.
Pay not particularly attractive.

For not drifting too far from the topic i will stop here.

It's not only airport staff. Lots of HK restaurants/hotels and other sectors have a difficult time recruiting.

I dont believe that the industry has "recovered well in most parts of the world' .
European airports are still having dreadful trouble as are AU and NZ also Singapore I understand.
The labour shortages in HK are easing week by week and were never as serious as those in Europe

Indeed.
But HKG traffic has been increasing quite slowly (for various reasons), while European and US airports saw a rapid increase in flights when covid restrictions were lifted.
Furthermore industrial action took/take their toll on some European airports and they make the headlines.

Sorry Brunos I dont wholly agree.
The traffic has increased very fast in the past 2 months with now most 2019 airlines back along with several new ones with more to come.. A few majors have not yet returned but all but a couple are intending to
3 million pax last month is still running well behind the 74 million in year 2019 but to put this in context this was almost 50% of 6.3 million that was achieved by LHR that is 18 months ahead. of HKG in recovery.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...uverify%20wall

Good news. In town check-in will reopen on July 5th in Hong Kong station

They must have known I am leaving that day :D