Crew quarantine obligation reduces Cathay Pacific's network

From next week, airlines based at Hong Kong will have to comply with new quarantine measures. Stricter rules laid down by a Hong Kong government panicked by the resurgence of the virus.

The rule requires all travellers from abroad to confine themselves to a designated area for 14 days and remain under medical supervision for a further seven days. The Hong Kong airline's flight crews, Cathay Pacificwill not escape.

Hence the new tightening of the screws imposed by the airline's management on its in-flight services.

Cathay Pacific announces remove up to 60% of its capacity with a cascade of suspended lines. In Europe, Frankfurt goes down in flames. Cathay nevertheless retains a weekly flight from Hong Kong to London with a return flight from Amsterdam.

In Asia/Pacific, Cathay is suspending flights to all of Australia (except Sydney), Auckland, Ho Chi Minh City, Kuala Lumpur and Seoul. It will only offer one-way flights on Cebu and Kaohsiung (Taiwan) from Hong Kong. To North America, connections to San Francisco and Vancouver.

However, the carrier will continue to operate flights on Bangkok, Jakarta, Los Angeles, Manila, New York, Osaka, Singapore, Surabaya, Taipei, Tokyo and Toronto. Another unaffected sector is the China for which quarantine is not imposed. Cathay therefore continues to serve Beijing and Shanghai.

Cathay handles fewer than 40,000 passengers in December

However, the company may reconsider its plans and is expected to announce the 22 February its timetable for March. She envisaged alternative solution from base its staff and aircraft on stopovers outside China and fly them to third-party destinations. Cathay already has fifth freedom traffic rights in Bangkok and Singapore.

It remains to be seen whether this is an economically viable solution, and whether the governments of Hong Kong and especially Beijing would accept such a redeployment. Nothing is less certain in the context of widespread suspicion in China.

Cathay Pacific seems to be plunging into a never-ending downward spiral. Last year, the carrier carried 4.63 million passengersThis represents a decline of 86.9%. But in December, the carrier recorded fewer than 40,000 passengers.a fall of 98,7% compared with December 2019. The load factor over the year was 58% (-24.3 points). December saw a new record low of 18.4%, a decline of 66.6 points. The happy days of the Hong Kong airline seem a long way off.