Flights from Hong Kong to Japan ‘every 15 minutes’ over Lunar New Year

Culture minister Rosanna Law enjoys Lam Tsuen wishing tree tradition on first day of Lunar New Year, as Airport Authority welcomes visitors

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For the entire 2024, Hong Kong’s airport handled 34.3 per cent more passengers than the year before at 53.1 million. Photo: Elson Li

Published: 2:19pm, 29 Jan 2025Updated: 10:34pm, 29 Jan 2025

A plane will be departing Hong Kong for Japan every 15 minutes on average during the Lunar New Year period amid strong demand, as the city’s airport expects its post-pandemic recovery to continue with overall flight numbers growing by 30 per cent year on year over the festive break.

Vivian Cheung Kar-fay, acting CEO of the Airport Authority, said on Wednesday that there were close to 150 flights a day between Hong Kong and 13 Japanese cities during the festive period.

Cheung was speaking at a ceremony at Hong Kong International Airport to welcome visitors on the first day of Lunar New Year, while senior officials such as Secretary for Culture, Sports and Tourism Rosanna Law Shuk-pui took part in celebrations at Lam Tsuen in Tai Po.

“We have close to 75 pairs of flights heading to and from Japan every day to 13 cities, meaning it’s almost one flight every 15 minutes. It’s very convenient if you wish to travel,” Cheung said.

“There will be a growth of over 30 per cent in flights compared with last year,” she said, referring to the Lunar New Year period.

“We can see that flights will be back at a pre-pandemic level in 2025, with daily passenger throughput at 200,000 and almost 1,100 flights taking off and landing.”

About 200,000 passengers passed through the airport daily in the past few days, and operations were smooth with sufficient staff to handle the heavy traffic, according to Cheung.