Secretary for Transport and Logistics Mable Chan said on Thursday that imported talent can help with maintenance of the C919 aircraft in the SAR.

China Eastern is now using the domestically made jet on flights between Hong Kong and Shanghai.

On a radio programme, Chan was asked whether Hong Kong has a sufficient number of engineers able to carry out maintenance work on the aircraft.

"The Civil Aviation Department has been participating in the certification work of the C919 on the mainland since 2012, and the department has also deployed workers to the mainland to join related training courses," Chan said.

"If we need more people to offer short-term support, we can also make use of existing schemes to import talents, as well as work visas to cater for the need."

Meanwhile, the transport chief also said flight movements at the airport returned to pre-pandemic levels over Christmas, with a daily peak of about 1,150.

The average daily number of passengers exceeded 180,000 during the holiday, with a peak of 190,000 on December 21, Chan said.