American Airlines and United Airlines have suspended Hong Kong flights until August 5, 2020 due to new crew testing requirements that make commercial flights impractical.
This news is just breaking and Live and Let’s Fly has not obtained official confirmation yet, though two insiders have independently confirmed the news.
One tells me that Hong Kong now requires airline crews to be tested on arrival and that they must quarantine until results are available…48 hours later. This presents an irreconcilable challenge for crew scheduling. Furthermore, the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), the union representing United pilots, opposes mandatory testing for pilots.
United’s Hong Kong flight was indeed cancelled today:
Note the reason for cancellation: “entry restrictions imposed by Hong Kong”.
And American’s flight tomorrow is cancelled:
JonNYC also reports that United has suspended Hong Kong service:
hearing that united services to HKG are being imminently suspended due to new crew testing requirements.
Today’s SFO-HKG-SIN flight has been canceled due to entry restrictions.
And it looks like all pilots on layover in HKG have deadheaded back to SFO today.
UNCONFIRMED.— JonNYC (@xJonNYC) July 8, 2020
Mark this news as developing, but if you had planned to travel to Hong Kong (or Singapore on United since the Singapore flight travels via Hong Kong), you may find yourself grounded for the rest of the month. No word yet on how this impacts Cathay Pacific.
image: N509FZ / Wikimedia Commons
Seems totally unreasonable. Airline crews are unlikely to be infected and unlikely to engage in “super spreading” during a brief stay at a hotel. They could even just ask the airline crews to stay confined to their hotel premises during the layover, which I don’t think most crew would mind, given large hotels have bars, restaurants, and pools. Instead, Hong Kong wants to shut down their economy. These travel restrictions should really end sooner rather than later.
LOL ridiculous
US should shut up and learn. Look at what happen in US. Who told you it is low risk for the crew member? They have the same probability to catch the virus like the passager. When US get zero cases in 14 days then they have the right to complaint. United is lucky that they even allow flight from US to.Hong Kong given the rate of increase of the virus.
Crew were tested positives and multiply new clusters have popped up in HK.
Though… Most test result in HK will be available within 12 hours …. So why do they need to quarantine for 48 hours ??
At first I just thought–wow, excellent idea and safety precaution Seems like solution is to give crews a 2 night layover in HKG (similar to what airlines often do on 2-3x weekly service already)
Then I remembered Crew union contract requires a city center hotel and freedom to leave/shop/eat in public
Therefore they won’t agree to quarantine for 48hrs every trip
according to local newspaper: (sounds quite reasonable to me after some pilots were tested positive
“Pilots are now required to go to the nearby Asia-World Expo to get tested, although unlike the general public, aircrew do not have to wait for their results, are free to leave the testing centre, and do not need to quarantine afterwards.
Local pilots say the whole process could add two hours to their day once they get off the plane.”
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/transport/article/3092420/coronavirus-united-airlines-stops-resumed-hong-kong
Situation in Australia continues to evolve. More states have closed their borders to Victoria state (home of Melbourne). I think the return of many international flights is still too soon. This is a pandemic virus, not a weather event. Serbia has returned to lockdown.
Some countries continue to open, e.g. Dubai. But the situation there could quickly change. Caribbean nations are opening at different levels, but these islands, like Hawaii and Puerto Rico, are very cautious as their healthcare systems cannot cope with any great surge of Covid-19 cases. Ditto third world countries.
It appears that for the most part 2020 year of travel internationally is mostly a lost cause. Too many variables at play as per the Hong Kong situation Matthew posted.
This is just the beginning of Hong Kong authorities (China) making things difficult on the US in retribution for the US taking away special status from HK and the Congress overwhelming condemning China for instituting the new National Security Law; the old Hong Kong of one year ago or earlier is very sadly long gone.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/25/asia/hong-kong-national-security-law-explainer-intl-hnk-scli/index.html
This is a good point…not sure if true, but would not surprise me.