The Airport Authority’s acting chief executive Vivian Cheung on Wednesday said she expected passenger numbers to be about 30 percent higher this Lunar New Year holiday, when compared to last year.

She said the airport had been operating smoothly and around 160,000 people had passed through on the first day of the Year of the Snake. That's about 20 percent fewer than on the peak days earlier in the week.

“The last few days were a peak period and the airport saw around 200,000 people a day, which almost reached the level before the pandemic,” Cheung said.

“For example, we have around 75 pairs of flights between Hong Kong and 13 Japanese cities every day, meaning there’s a flight every 15 minutes. It’s very convenient for Hongkongers to travel,” she said.

Cheung also expected flight movements this year to return to the pre-pandemic level, with the airport seeing around 1,100 flights taking off and landing each day.