HONG KONG - Hong Kong is poised to allow airport check-in services in the heart of the city again, according to people familiar with the matter, reviving a system that epitomised convenience for travellers before the financial hub’s Covid-19 isolation.

After being cordoned off for more than three years, check-in counters at Hong Kong station are expected to open on July 5, the people said, enabling some airline passengers to drop off their luggage downtown at any point during the day of their flight and then collect it at their final destination.

A decision has not been made on restarting check-in at Kowloon and Tsing Yi stations, the people said, asking not to be identified because discussions are private.  

In-town check-in was suspended in April 2020 as Hong Kong imposed strict curbs on international travel, including weeks of mandatory quarantine in designated facilities for anyone flying in.

Even though Hong Kong dropped its last Covid-19 restrictions months ago, a shortage of workers has prevented train operator MTR and the airport from restarting the bag-drop service.

MTR, Airport Authority Hong Kong and Cathay Pacific Airways did not respond to e-mailed requests for comment. 

Hong Kong is one of only a handful of places in the world that have in-town check-in – others include Taipei and Kuala Lumpur.

Restarting the service will lift one of the last vestiges of the pandemic from a city that persisted with Covid-19 restrictions longer than most – a policy that damaged its reputation as a freewheeling, easy-to-navigate financial hub. 

Visitor numbers are still way off pre-pandemic levels. Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s main airline, does not expect to get to 2019 levels of passenger capacity until the end of next year. 

Express train services from Hong Kong Station to the airport, a journey of 24 minutes for HK$110 (S$19) per adult, continued to run throughout the pandemic, albeit it at lower frequencies. BLOOMBERG