The Moodie Davitt Report -The Moodie Davitt Report

Our regular feature celebrates memorable scenes, moments, launches and campaigns related to the global aviation and travel retail sphere.

HONG KONG, CHINA. Today’s selection comes from Sunil Tuli, Group Chief Executive at King Power Group (Hong Kong) via a LinkedIn post. After travelling to Hong Kong from Singapore this week, Tuli toured the luxury boutiques King Power Global Development Company* runs at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) in association with Richemont Group.

These were reopened in phases from November in line with the easing and then scrapping of Hong Kong’s COVID-related travel constraints. The Cartier, IWC Schaffhausen, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Panerai and Piaget boutiques form an integral part of HKIA’s , which includes Chanel, Hermès, and Louis Vuitton duplex stores.

“Our shops at Hong Kong Airport are finally open after three years, just in time for Chinese New Year,” Tuli commented.

*As first revealed by The Moodie Davitt Report, King Power Global Development Company – a joint venture between King Power Group (Hong Kong) and King Power International of Thailand – was awarded five luxury concessions at HKIA in November 2018. The contracts began in August and September 2019 only for the pandemic to devastate HKIA passenger traffic from early 2020 and through the ensuing three years.

Above and below: Sunil Tuli (third from right above) visits the star-studded luxury line-up with members of the King Power Group (HK) team and brand representatives

As reported, HKIA served 5.7 million passengers in 2022, up +318.4% on a troubled 2021 but still -92% down on the 71.5 million pre-pandemic 2019 level.

More encouragingly, a late-year improvement driven by Hong Kong’s easing and then scrapping of quarantine requirements, saw December passenger traffic surge +938.7% year-on-year to 1.6 million. While that equated to just 28.1% of December 2019 volumes (5.7 million –the same figure as the whole of 2022), the recent opening of the Hong Kong-Mainland China border augurs well for a strong and sustained recovery in 2023. ✈

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