Exclusive | Coronavirus: Cathay Pacific strikes aircrew quarantine deal with government over flights to ‘high-risk’ countries
- Quarantine rules will not change for pilots, cabin crew of local carriers even after 16 countries are moved into higher-risk categories from Friday
- Travellers from Group A countries must quarantine on arrival for 21 days instead of 14
Quarantine rules will not change for staff of local carriers even after 16 countries – including the United States and Australia – are moved into higher-risk categories from Friday, according to official Covid-19 regulations for frontline pilots and cabin crew sent to airlines on Thursday night.
The risk-level revisions mean longer hotel stays for arrivals from those countries.
Hong Kong’s biggest airline struck the deal with the government to avoid plunging its flight operations into further chaos and inflicting additional financial harm.
It is the first major concession to a company for achieving a high Covid-19 vaccination rate.
On Monday, an additional 15 countries were added to the city’s high-risk category, which affected a significant number of destinations Cathay services, including France, Malaysia, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates and US. Australia was moved from low to medium risk.
It remains to be seen whether Cathay will still need to reduce its flight schedule.
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Earlier on Thursday, the airline said it had secured a seven-day quarantine deal for all countries classed as high and medium risk, but the government issued the revised rules later.
For aircrew, all newly upgraded Group A or high-risk countries will be treated as Group B, or medium risk, and the quarantine period will remain at seven days. Australia will be treated as a low-risk country and returning crew do not need to isolate. For existing high-risk countries such as Britain, quarantine remains at 14 days for aircrew.
For countries whose risk status did not change, the rules remain the same.
Travellers from Group A countries must quarantine on arrival for 21 days instead of 14 starting on Friday, with 14 days for Group B arrivals, and no more reductions in confinement periods available through antibody testing. To compound matters, airlines face having to find more staff to operate flights with crew isolating for longer.
Fully vaccinated crew on passenger and cargo flights coming from existing Group A countries need to quarantine for 14 days, and 21 for unvaccinated employees.
Those operating on cargo flights from Group B places are exempt, but passenger crew get seven days – or 14 days for both sets of unprotected staff.
The concessions made to Cathay lie in stark contrast to the tough conditions being imposed on ordinary Hongkongers, who have had their travel plans upended by the government’s decision to increase quarantine limits.
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In a statement, the Transport and Housing Bureau said: “These quarantine requirements are formulated on a risk-based approach … with a view to upholding Hong Kong’s status as an international aviation hub while keeping public health risk at bay.”
A bureau spokeswoman added: “Against the above backdrop and after taking into account a basket of factors, the government has allowed the quarantine requirements of local-based aircrew to remain status quo for the time being.”
Dr Karen Grepin, associate professor at the University of Hong Kong’s school of public health, said the reason the city might want quarantine longer than 14 days was the deterrence effect so there were fewer people travelling than there needed to be.
“Less people coming in, less risk of transmission,” she said. “That’s not what we want with the cabin crew and pilots. We need them flying, delivering goods, people, and we need the planes running. There is no need for a deterrence for those people.”
Cathay last week said that of its Hong Kong-based staff, 99 per cent of pilots and 92 per cent of cabin crew were inoculated or about to be. The airline ordered all staff to be vaccinated by August 31 or face losing their job.
More airlines in recent weeks and months have ordered aircrew to be vaccinated, while Singapore Air and Malaysia Airlines both secured vaccination rates for active staff of more than 90 per cent
“All operations will be by fully vaccinated crew only,” a memo from Chris Kempis, Cathay’s director of flight operations, said on Thursday.
“The current quarantine rules assume a blemish-free month ahead and so I again ask that we all keep ourselves safe and continue to do everything required to comply with the health and safety protocols that are in place.”
Cathay, which is the largest passenger and cargo airline operating in and out of Hong Kong, has conducted 77,000 negative test results and zero positive ones for arriving Hong Kong crew this year.
Separately, Hong Kong will continue to exempt cargo aircrew who stopover in Anchorage in Alaska, Thailand, Australia, Singapore and a host of other places to protect the movement of air freight.
Cathay previously slashed its flight schedules when quarantine was first imposed on aircrew earlier this year, at a cost of HK$400 million, despite already losing a significant amount of money with 99 per cent fewer passengers flying daily.
