London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Cathay resumes more flights to Europe, but tough quarantine rules hit plans

Cathay resumes more flights to Europe, but tough quarantine rules hit plans

The increase in flights was made possible because each service could cover its operating costs, aided by strong air cargo demand.

Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific has resumed flights to more European cities this month for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic struck, but tough quarantine rules have disrupted some of the carrier’s plans, the Post has learned.

Cathay reconnected with more European cities – with Madrid and Milan the latest destinations – in November for the first time since Hong Kong ordered returning residents to quarantine upon arrival from overseas in late March 2020.

Hong Kong’s flagship airline, however, has ditched plans to relaunch its Zurich service as it does not have enough cabin crew to operate flights to Switzerland, deemed by Hong Kong as a high-risk country for Covid-19.

Cathay Pacific ground crew at Hong Kong International Airport.


Sources familiar with the situation said the increase in flights was made possible because each service could cover its operating costs, aided by strong air cargo demand and by appealing to transit travellers to fly through Hong Kong as the rest of the world reopened.

The company internally said it still intended to reconnect with more cities next month, but according to a Cathay spokeswoman, its December schedule has not yet been finalised.

The shortage of flight attendants stems from Cathay relying on volunteer staff to fly to high-risk countries in a closed-loop system. Crew work non-stop for three weeks and then quarantine for a fortnight before being allowed to return to their families, a schedule many employees find unattractive despite extra pay being offered.

Several of Cathay’s key markets including Britain, the United States, Thailand, Malaysia and India were among the 25 countries classified by Hong Kong as high-risk, forcing the airline to be selective about which routes it prioritised, sources said.

Doubts remain over Cathay’s ability to restore flights in coming months.


Henk Ombelet, head of advisory operations at aviation data company Ascend by Cirium, said: “The costs added to the Cathay operation by the stringent rules for both crew and passengers, and the severely restricted demand, have not done Cathay any favours, and unless and until rules are relaxed, Cathay will not be able to restore its network.”

The resumption of flights by Cathay and other Asian airlines to Europe comes as the continent suffers a resurgence of Covid-19 cases. The World Health Organization on Friday said Europe was again “at the epicentre” of the pandemic, warning it could suffer half a million extra deaths by next February.

Mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau, pursuing a zero-Covid policy, have effectively closed their borders to the international community.

Doubts remain over how Cathay can keep restoring flights in the coming months, constrained by limited aircrew resources and strict isolation policies. Arrivals in Hong Kong must fight for 11,500 hotel spots designated for up to 21 days of mandatory quarantine.

Ombelet said Cathay had been further affected by its greater reliance on China air traffic compared with rival Singapore Airlines (SIA). He said his company’s data showed Cathay was trying to keep its network flying at least once a week rather than daily – and only increased flights if needed.

Singapore Airlines scheduled 1,572 flights this month.


With no domestic services to rely on, Cathay currently flies to 45 destinations, down from 100, while SIA is operating 48 of the 87 routes flown in pre-pandemic times, Cirium data shows.

Another snapshot, excluding mainland China, shows SIA scheduled 1,572 flights this month compared with 4,900 in November 2019, whereas Cathay had just 434 flights against 4,327 two years ago.

Cathay in September said its ambition to recover its flight network to about 30 per cent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year would be scaled back to the current figure of about 13 per cent.

“Operational and passenger travel restrictions remain in place, continuing to constrain our ability to operate more flights,” it said in a monthly report.

In contrast, SIA is ramping up the restoration of services with the help of its Vaccinated Travel Lane flights as Singapore opens up to the rest of the world.

On a positive note, Cathay Pacific has about 70 passenger planes parked outside Hong Kong, down from about 80 in the first half of the year, according to data seen by the Post.

The airline group, including HK Express, had 89 aircraft parked by the end of June.

Cathay Pacific’s daily passenger volume collapsed from 100,000 a day to fewer than 500 at the low point.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×