Two years ago, I asserted in an article that the three-runway system (3RS) at Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) was far more than a feat of engineering; it was a wager on the city’s future as a hub of global connectivity. The figures now coming out of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government suggest that that wager is beginning to pay off, and in a way that reaches well beyond the aviation sector.

Hong Kong recorded 31.22 million visitor arrivals in the first seven months of 2026, up 11 percent from the same period a year earlier. In the first half of the year, HKIA handled more than 200,000 flight movements, a rise of 4.4 percent year-on-year, while passenger traffic climbed 11.7 percent to 32.8 million. About 140 airlines now connect the city to more than 225 destinations worldwide. These are not abstract statistics. They describe a city whose international connectivity, tested and occasionally strained during the pandemic years, has not only recovered but strengthened considerably.

Hong Kong is often viewed primarily through the lens of finance. Yet the latest aviation figures are a reminder that the city’s global relevance rests on a broader foundation, where infrastructure, logistics and people-to-people exchanges are as important as capital markets.

Much of this momentum can be traced directly to decisions made years ago. HKIA’s expanded Terminal 2, which opened in May, has welcomed 15 airlines into its departure facilities, and is expected to handle around 8 million passenger trips in its first year of operation, easing congestion at the airport’s original terminal. The Airport Authority has paired this physical expansion with a push toward a smart-airport model, such as Flight Token, a facial recognition system that was used by roughly 80 percent of departing passengers as of June. None of this happened by accident. It reflects years of planning built on the assumption that Hong Kong’s future competitiveness as a hub would depend as much on the passenger experience as on runway capacity.

These operational gains are showing up on the balance sheet as well. HKIA reported a 14.7 percent rise in passenger numbers and a net profit of HK$2.04 billion ($260.1 million) for the 2025-26 financial year, evidence that the investment poured into the 3RS, Terminal 2 and the airport’s digital systems is translating into commercial performance. The government has separately set a target of 53.8 million annual visitor arrivals, underlining that aviation growth and the broader tourism offering are being planned in tandem rather than treated as separate policy tracks.

The exhibitions and conventions sector tells a similar story. More than 170 events were held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre and at AsiaWorld-Expo during the first six months of the year, drawing a combined attendance of 3.5 million. Under the Skytopia project, construction on the second phase of AsiaWorld-Expo is now underway, with completion slated for 2028, which will expand the city’s capacity to host large-scale exhibitions and events. Hong Kong has long been a favored destination for major conventions precisely because of its convenient global transport links; as that infrastructure grows, so does its appeal to organizers who might otherwise choose Singapore, Bangkok or a growing number of hubs on the Chinese mainland.

What is perhaps more interesting, from the standpoint of long-term strategy, is how far the Airport Authority is now willing to look beyond aviation. Plans to develop yacht tourism around the airport island and the Hong Kong Port artificial island, offering more than 500 berths including facilities for superyachts over 100 meters, point toward an ambition to turn HKIA into an integrated tourism and lifestyle landmark rather than simply a point of transit.

This is worth situating within a wider perspective. Hong Kong’s role as a superconnector and super value-adder for the country is not sustained by any single sector. It depends on the interplay between finance, logistics, exhibitions, tourism and, increasingly, talent.

The real infrastructure of the 21st century is human rather than physical as laboratories and science parks matter little without the people who can put them to use. The same logic applies to aviation. A world-class airport is not only a matter of runways and reclaimed land; it depends on aviation engineers, air traffic controllers, cabin crew, logistics specialists and hospitality professionals, many of whom will need to be trained, retained or attracted from overseas as HKIA’s capacity — ultimately rising toward 120 million passengers and 10 million metric tons of cargo a year under the 3RS — continues to expand. As Hong Kong pursues that expansion, the same talent strategies now being discussed in the context of the city’s universities and its planned Northern Metropolis University Town will matter just as much for its airport, its logistics parks and its cross-border transport links with the rest of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The timing of these aviation figures also matters. Hong Kong is drafting its first five-year development blueprint, to be aligned with the nation’s 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30). Connectivity (physical, digital and, importantly, human) is expected to be one of its central themes, alongside innovation and technology, education and economic diversification.

A financial center’s ability to attract capital, talent and business travelers depends in no small part on how easily people, goods and ideas can move in and out of the city, which is exactly what an expanding, increasingly sophisticated aviation hub delivers.

None of this is to suggest that Hong Kong’s aviation ambitions are free of challenges. Regional competition for aviation traffic, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions) business and high-net-worth tourism remains intense. Sustaining double-digit growth in visitor arrivals will require continued investment, not only in infrastructure but in the workforce needed to operate it, and in maintaining the kind of efficient, technology-enabled passenger experience that Flight Token and similar systems are designed to provide.

The author is a fintech adviser, a researcher and a former business analyst for a Hong Kong publicly listed company.

The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.