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Cathay Pacific drops dozens of Australian flights

written by Isabella Richards | December 23, 2021

Australian Aviation photographer Rob Finlayson was onsite to see Cathay Pacific’s first run from Hobart to Hong Kong on its A350-900 this week. (Rob Finlayson)

Cathay Pacific has dropped multiple international flights from its schedule, including Australia, for the rest of the month continuing to January as Hong Kong maintains a stringent zero-COVID strategy.

Only weeks after resuming several flights into Australia, the airline has cancelled all but two flights a week to Sydney throughout January, dropping from two per day.

Flights to Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth are being cancelled from the schedule altogether.

“The new consolidated schedule will result in several flight cancellations,” said Cathay on its website.

Earlier this week, Cathay services to New York were also slashed until early January after three passengers on a flight were reported to be infected.

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The airline did not provide further information but said it would reach out to all affected customers and make alternative flight arrangements, according to Reuters.

The move marks the latest blow for the Hong Kong carrier, as it has been flying only 12 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity levels, compared to most airlines flying above 70 per cent.

Hong Kong has remained the strictest nation in the world in response to the pandemic in a bid to have zero cases, while other nations have adopted strategies to live with COVID-19.

It comes as the world battles the latest surge of cases from the new COVID-19 variant Omicron, seeing other nations impose strict restrictions again.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong is still reporting a daily average of seven cases and has not seen an outbreak since January.

Cathay also said in November it was flying five per cent less passengers per day due the lack of student travel.

In November, the carrier was seeking options for employees to be transferred abroad for up to four months to reduce transmission.

It came only days after the airline imposed tough rules for aircrew to undergo mandatory quarantining for 21 days after entering the nation.

Many industry leaders have criticised Hong Kong for its unnecessary COVID-19 restrictions, which continued to impact thousands of businesses.

Last week, chief executive of Qatar Airways Akbar Al Baker told the South China Morning Post that the policy was “killing” the airline.

“You can’t just shut the aviation industry (down) because somebody got infected coming in (on) someone’s aeroplane,” he said.

Al Baker holds almost a 10 per cent stake in Cathay, and said he is “disappointed” with Hong Kong’s choice to remain closed, even to Mainland China.

Despite the borders being closed from the world, Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Carrie Lam said in October she is confident the nation will remain a leading aviation hub.

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Comment (1)

  • Tony

    says:

    Wonder how much influence is put on CX by its’ CCP bosses’ in Beijing?

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