Cathay Pacific temporarily suspends all flights to Australia,

CATHAY A330-343 B-LAO (MSN 1317)        File Photo

Cathay Pacific Airways has temporarily suspended all flights to Australia, except to Sydney, as it figures out how to manage new COVID restrictions imposed by the Hong Kong Government. From the 20th February the airline will be halting its flights to Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth until the end of the month at least. The airline said it was reviewing its available staffing for March, to adapt its flight schedule to the new Hong Kong quarantine arrangements.

It said it would provide an update on its new flight schedule by the 22nd February.

The decision to severely reduce the number of international flights from February 20 will also see services to Auckland, San Francisco, Vancouver, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City scrapped. A one-way flight from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv will operate once in the initial two-week flight reduction period, on February 23.

"In view of the Hong Kong SAR Government's latest announcement, with effect from 20 February 2021, our Hong Kong-based pilots and cabin crew are required to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine plus 7 days of medical surveillance when they return to Hong Kong after being on duty," the airline said in a statement on its website on Wednesday evening. "We are actively managing our crew resources to plan for our flight services for March 2021."

The move by Cathay Pacific is the latest in a series of airline flight cancellations and changes that have left the travel plans of those stuck overseas in disarray. Last month, hundreds of Australians were left stranded overseas after Emirates abruptly cancelled flights between Dubai and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, with no information on when flights would restart, before suddenly restarting the flights less than a week later.

Also last month, a decision by National Cabinet to temporarily halve the number of international passengers arriving in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia, to reduce the risk of exposure to the highly contagious UK strain of coronavirus, saw airlines such at Etihad cancel the tickets of Australians who were trying to get home.

Story sourced from here
Cathay Pacific temporarily suspends all flights to Australia, except to Sydney - ABC News