Flights canceled in more Hong Kong airport chaos – CNN

New data from flight booking analyst firm ForwardKeys shows a “dramatic drop” in Asia bookings to Hong Kong during the ongoing pro-democracy protests, the company said in a statement.

What’s the damage: In the 27 days between July 14 and August 9, flight bookings from Asia — not including mainland China and Taiwan — fell by 33.4% from the same period last year.

“There is now clear evidence that the protests have reversed a positive travel trend in which bookings for the first six and a half months of the year were up 6.6% on 2018,” the statement said.

What caused the fall in bookings: For the eight-week period from June 16 to August 9, flight bookings fell by 20% from last year, the company said. During that time, a mass protest of reportedly two million people took to the streets, the Legislative Council building was stormed by protesters, riot police fired tear gas and rubber bullets in increasingly fraught confrontations with protesters, a mob attacked protesters in Yuen Long and police fired tear gas in multiple subway stations. There have also been hundreds of arrests and dozens of injuries.

Long-haul flights affected too: There is also evidence that the protests are now affecting long-haul bookings to Hong Kong, with a 4.7% drop between June 16 and August 9 from last year, the company found.

Numbers could get worse: ForwardKeys, which analyses over 17 million flight bookings a day, says the numbers do not include the protests at the airport on Monday when all flights were canceled after demonstrators occupied the airport.