It looks like Hong Kong is going to ban a lot of transit passengers.
transit from 150 countries will be banned in Hong Kong.
One of the strictest zero-tolerance approaches towards coronaviruses has been taken by Hong Kong. Not many places have maintained that system since coronaviruses isn't going anywhere.
This has had a huge impact on Hong Kong's aviation landscape. In November 2021, Cathay Pacific carried just 70,047 passengers, a 97.3% decrease compared to November 2019. It looks like things are going to get worse.
Danny Lee reports that Hong Kong is planning on banning passengers from coming from high-risk countries if they are coming through Hong Kong International Airport. A majority of destinations in the network are long haul.
This would apply from January 15 through February 14, 2022, but could be extended beyond that, based on the epidemiological situation. This is intended to allow Hong Kong to squash the omicron variant.
Hong Kong banned passenger flights from countries that import a lot of coronaviruses. Hong Kong has a ban on flights from many countries, including Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, etc.
Most transit passengers will be banned in Hong Kong.
Poor, poor Cathay Pacific...
I asked if Cathay Pacific will ever be able to recover. The bigger question is whether Hong Kong will ever recover as Asia's global business hub.
The impact of coronaviruses on the airline industry is hard, but the impact on Cathay Pacific is even harder. How long can Cathay Pacific survive?
The airline can't carry transit passengers to most countries and can't operate flights to countries where a lot of cases are imported from. The carrier had to cut back on dedicated cargo flights.
There is no indication that Hong Kong's approach to coronaviruses will change in order for the airline to survive.
How long can Cathay Pacific survive?
The bottom line.
Hong Kong will be banning transit passengers from most countries in order to curb the spread of the omicron coronaviruses variant. I feel bad for Cathay Pacific because they banned flights from countries that imported coronaviruses.
The airline was at 3% of pre-pandemic passenger numbers before these changes, and this will make the situation worse. I wouldn't recommend booking any transit flights through Hong Kong for the time being, because there is no indication that anything will change for the better.
I adore you, Cathay Pacific...
How long will this madness last?
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