Cathay Pacific cancels longhaul cargo flights for seven days
Cathay Pacific (CX, Hong Kong Int’l) has confirmed it has suspended all long-haul cargo flights for seven days until January 6, 2022, after Hong Kong announced tightened quarantine requirements for crew members.
“In light of additional and more stringent quarantine requirements for Hong Kong-based cargo crew, Cathay Pacific Cargo will pause all long-haul (Transpacific, Europe, South-west Pacific, Riyadh, and Dubai World Central) freighter and cargo-only passenger flights with immediate effect for a period of seven days, up to January 6. We sincerely apologise for the disruption caused. We will be working with customers to mitigate the disruption as much as possible. In addition, we are working with the relevant stakeholders on plans beyond January 6 and will communicate further on these as soon as possible,” the airline said in a statement in response to a query from ch-aviation.
According to Flightradar24 ADS-B data, Cathay Pacific cancelled at least 15 flights between December 30 and January 1, including to Brisbane Int’l, Sydney Kingsford Smith, Perth Int’l, and Melbourne Tullamarine (Australia); Auckland Int’l (New Zealand); Los Angeles Int’l, Chicago O’Hare, and San Francisco, CA (USA); Vancouver Int’l (Canada); Manchester Int’l (UK); Tel Aviv Ben Gurion (Israel); Bangkok Suvarnabhumi (Thailand); and Kaohsiung (Taiwan).
Citing an internal memo to staff, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported Cathay Pacific was activating “closed-loop operations” for cargo crew, which required staff to volunteer for lengthy stints away from home for up to several weeks. “We cannot transition to closed-loop operations overnight and we need to take a breather to fully consider all dependencies, including hotel room availability, which is critical,” Director of Flight Operations, Chris Kempis, was quoted.
“As a result, we are stopping all 747 and cargo-only passenger flight layover operations with immediate effect for a period of seven days and planning to restart these during the course of the day on January 6th,” the note said.
Kempis said the airline would press ahead with plans to send crew overseas to Los Angeles and reactivate its United States pilot base.
Cargo crew initially only had to hotel quarantine for three days after arriving in Hong Kong, but this has now been extended to seven days, while cargo flights are required to implement “closed-loop” operations.
SCMP earlier reported that a quarantine-exempt Cathay Pacific cargo pilot has been confirmed as the first carrier of the Omicron variant to enter Hong Kong. The airline also sacked three cargo pilots for becoming infected with COVID-19 during a layover in Frankfurt Int’l. This lead to more than 150 other Cathay Pacific employees being sent to a government quarantine facility for three weeks.