Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
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I’m a flying Kiwi once again. Grounded since my last COVID-ruined flight of 2022, I’ve found my way courtesy of Cathay Pacific to Sydney, where I’m attending the Heinemann Australia and Sydney Airport luxury precinct launch later this week.
After that, like the Kiwi bird equivalent of a homing pigeon, I’m going to soar over the Tasman for a quick visit to my hometown, Christchurch.
It’s my first visit here in the New South Wales capital for almost six years, way too long considering the relatively short flight from Hong Kong but we can blame a certain wretched coronavirus for that.
I was delighted to see Sydney has entered into the spirit of Sydney WorldPride, which is taking place from 17 February to 5 March and seeing Sydney transformed into a Rainbow City to celebrate Sydney WorldPride, with museums, businesses, councils and others installing rainbow public artworks across the city.
What a wonderful display of support for the LGBTQIA+ community and it’s great to see Sydney Airport giving such a radiant and colourful welcome to visitors. Heinemann Australia and its brand partners have entered into the spirit of things too as the photos below show.
Passengers are being greeted with rainbow walkways leading the way to the outdoor Arrivals Forecourt and a Welcome Hub highlighting all that WorldPride has to offer. Once they reach the outdoor space, travellers gain an instant connection to the event with rainbow window panels and a suitably themed SYD.
There’s plenty of pride on show, albeit of a different kind, at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). It’s about three months since I last travelled out of HKIA and it is heart-warming to see and feel it looking like a normal airport again. Of course, passenger traffic is still far short of pre-pandemic levels but it is headed in the right direction and steeply so, with Chinese New Year volumes reaching approximately 40% of 2019 figures.
Most of the shops and restaurants are now open and it was encouraging to see quite of a lot of Mainlanders not only inside the terminal but inside the stores and shopping hard.
As I’ve said before, the management and teams at HKIA have had it very hard over the past three years. They will be enjoying this revival and deservedly so.
Pride (and no prejudice) in Sydney; A spirit of recovery in Hong Kong. Our industry at its best. ✈
