Covid-19 flight curbs isolating Hong Kong from rest of world

HONG KONG • Hong Kong is becoming increasingly shut off from the outside world because of its strict Covid-19 policies - with the city imposing a raft of flight bans and airlines slashing inbound services.

Cathay Pacific Airways has almost halved the number of flights into Hong Kong from outside China next month, according to aviation data company Cirium, in the wake of tougher quarantine restrictions on flight crew.

The city's marquee carrier has scheduled just 150 inbound services for January, the lowest monthly total since May last year.

Before the pandemic, the figure was close to 4,000.

Hong Kong has been conforming to China's Covid-19-zero strategy as the city seeks to reestablish quarantine-free travel with the mainland.

The authorities have imposed some of the world's most stringent travel rules, with overseas visitors required to quarantine for up to three weeks. Concerns are now mounting that Hong Kong will be left behind as other major cities attempt to live with Covid-19 as endemic.

The strict vaccination and quarantine requirements for most overseas arrivals have been decried by some Hong Kong residents as overly burdensome, but the rules have also been responsible for keeping the coronavirus largely at bay.

Cathay had earlier this week flagged "significant" changes to its schedules, including axing some flights to and from the city, because of tighter quarantine restrictions for aircrew.

According to the South China Morning Post, crew working on non-China passenger flights lost all quarantine-related exemptions from this week.

Late on Thursday, Cathay said it had suspended all long-haul freighter and cargo-only passenger flights for seven days due to the new rules.

British Airways has scrapped all flights to Hong Kong till March because of the tighter measures.

All told, the world's airlines are planning 758 services - excluding those from mainland China - into the city this month, according to Cirium. That is down from 791 in December and about 11,000 before the crisis.

The new Omicron variant has disrupted a nascent recovery of international air travel over the usually busy Christmas holiday, and Hong Kong is not alone in its bid to fight off the rapidly spreading strain.

Countries including France have also brought back travel restrictions to contain it.

On Thursday, Hong Kong announced two preliminary positive Covid-19 patients who had no travel history, marking the first community flare-up in nearly seven months.

The cases are both linked to an aircrew member who tested positive for Omicron.

The reductions in scheduled flights to Hong Kong follow weeks of crackdowns on airlines including Air India and Emirates that have operated inbound flights carrying infected passengers.

The authorities on Thursday closed an additional three routes operated by Finnair, Turkish Airlines and Cebu Pacific for two weeks for breaking Covid-19 prevention rules.

BLOOMBERG