London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Oct 06, 2025

Hong Kong tightens rules for aircrew on flights not from mainland China

Hong Kong tightens rules for aircrew on flights not from mainland China

Cathay Pacific is at risk of widespread flight cancellations in coming days, as it is unable to secure enough hotel rooms to meet new rules.

Airlines in Hong Kong have been told that crew working on non-mainland China passenger flights will lose all quarantine-related exemptions effective midnight on Wednesday, the Post has learned.

The government told airlines of the latest changes to its coronavirus rules earlier on Wednesday, going much further than the previous day when it instructed aircrew operating cargo flights to quarantine in a hotel for the first three days after returning to Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific is already at risk of widespread flight cancellations in the coming days, as it is unable to secure enough hotel rooms to accommodate the new government rules.








A Cathay Pacific spokeswoman said: “The further tightening of crew quarantine restrictions continues to constrain our ability to operate flights as planned. We are consolidating our passenger flight schedule for January 2022.”

Among the significant changes, all non-mainland flights to and from Hong Kong must be operated by closed-loop aircrew, who will be required to spend up to two weeks in quarantine.

This means even regional passenger services cannot be operated as “turnaround” flights without staff stepping foot off the plane at the destination. Under that rule, passenger aircrew could isolate at home.

Cathay operates many of its long-haul services under a closed loop – which will be extended to Asian flights – further placing stress on the beleaguered carrier.

The airline’s closed-loop arrangement means most crews operate flights for three weeks and then spend up to two weeks in hotel quarantine before returning home. These types of work patterns are voluntary and not popular with crew, with concerns about the strain on their mental health in isolation.

“Overnight, the CHP [Centre for Health Protection] released the latest update to 599H and we went into overdrive to cover the changes, however, since then we have been advised of a further, fundamental change,” the airline’s flight operations general manager Mark Hoey told staff in a memo, referring to local health regulations on quarantine.

“The biggest immediate changes are the three days quarantine for crew following a layover [who operate under medical surveillance rules and not quarantine] and the removal of exemptions from all passenger flights, except turnarounds to mainland China.”

The extent of the changes means, specifically for Cathay, it cannot operate flights from Hong Kong for passengers and then return to the city as cargo-only to skirt quarantine exemptions.

The airline is understood to have secured around 150 rooms so far for the three-day hotel quarantine requirement for cargo-linked operations. But talks are under way to allow Cathay to use more dedicated hotels to ensure its operations do not buckle under the lack of resources.

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant reaches Hong Kong through imported cases, Cathay has been under fire as several aircrew have tested positive upon returning to the city recently.

With Hong Kong pushing to get the border with mainland China reopened, the authorities on Tuesday ordered cargo aircrew to undergo hotel quarantine for the first three days back in the city.

Two Cathay flight attendants exacerbated the situation after being suspected of flouting the company’s strict rules on home isolation. The revelations prompted the airline to investigate the pair’s activities over the first three days of returning to Hong Kong – when they were not supposed to leave home except for testing.

The Transport and Housing Bureau defended its tightening of measures on Tuesday, saying it was seeking a better balance of rules alongside “the health risks while maintaining the essential air services and supplies into and out of Hong Kong”.

Meanwhile, under separate rules tightened just before Christmas that punish airlines for carrying too many Covid-19 cases, four key Cathay routes, London Heathrow, Toronto, Los Angeles and New York, have been banned for two weeks for breaches.

For the past two years, Cathay has been crushed by the pandemic, racking up HK$29.2 billion in related losses, with thousands of staff leaving the company.

The airline carries about 1 per cent of passengers daily compared with pre-pandemic levels. It remains one of the outliers among global airlines – operating in a zero-Covid environment – and with no clear recovery in sight.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
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
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×