China continues flight control; Huazhu restructures for global ambition | Daily Brief
05/20/2020|11:57:56 PM|ChinaTravelNews

China's tight control on air traffic will last till October

>> China's airline regulator will continue its strict guideline limiting each carrier to operate just one flight per week on each route to each country till October, reported local news outlet 21st Century Business Herald citing the latest notice issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. The rule was first announced in late March this year, two weeks after COVID-19 was announced a global pandemic. 

Chinese airlines not likely to rebound for at least two years

>> Despite reports of restoration of capacity toward pre-COVID levels, China’s air transportation system is not likely to fully recover for at least another two years. This is based on a number of factors: pre-COVID traffic trends, current economic trends in China, and, importantly, a certain collapse of international leisure traffic, both inbound and outbound.  

Hong Kong airport sees 99.5% passenger traffic drop in April

>> The number of people traveling in and out of Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) dropped to just 32,000 last month, indicating that traffic was down by 99.5% in April 2020 compared to April 2019. Air traffic statistics posted by the airport also show that HKIA saw 9,445 flights in April, a year-on-year decrease of 73.5%.

Huazhu initiates major restructuring to pursue global ambition

>> Chinese hotel group Huazhu initiated a major plan for organization restructuring last week to pursue the company's ambition of strengthening domestic business while going global. According to the plan announced by chairman Qi Ji in an internal letter, the company will be restructured to include two organizing bodies, the parent Huazhu Group and the subsidiary Huazhu China. China remains key to the company's operation while Huazhu will continue its investments for international expansion.

China hotel pipeline hits all-time high in Q1

>> Despite the COVID-19 outbreak, China's total hotel construction pipeline continues to expand to an all-time high of 3,533 projects/645,764 rooms in the first quarter, up 24% by projects and 9% by rooms year-over-year, according to a Lodging Econometrics report. But the country opened just 84 new hotels/13,283 rooms during the time. This is largely due to the delays in construction caused by COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown. 

Hong Kong Disneyland reportedly testing soft reopening

>> In the past couple of weeks, Hong Kong Disneyland has been making preparations for reopening. Temperature screening tents and social distancing markers similar to those seen at Shanghai Disneyland were installed recently. There is still no confirmed announcement regarding the specific public reopening date of Hong Kong Disneyland Park, but it seems ever more likely that it may become the second Disney theme park to resume operations, according to a report on WDW News.

Hong Kong Ocean Park risks bankruptcy by end of June

>> Hong Kong's Ocean Park announced it could go bankrupt by the end of June if it doesn't receive a bailout package of HKD 5.4 billion (USD 700 million).