‘Deep trouble’: Cathay Pacific descends further as punitive pandemic worsens
As Omicron spread to at least 50 people in Hong Kong last week the government looked to one place in particular for blame – the city’s flagship airline, Cathay Pacific. Two crew were accused of breaching their home quarantine, going shopping or meeting friends, and spreading the highly transmissible variant in the city. As numbers rose, infection flow charts were published marking cases with the airline’s brand while the government launched inquiries and threatened legal action. Pro-Beijing figures and state media called for punishment. The airline had just come off a government ban on flying key international routes, a punishment for carrying Covid-positive passengers. Around the same time the ban was imposed in late December, quarantine rules were tightened after a pilot tested positive, and then again just days later after three crew also did, and then again after the latest incidents. On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s CE Carrie Lam described the airline as “a very big noncompliance case” and accused it of sending some crew back to the territory on empty cargo flights to access shorter quarantine periods. “This has to be put under full investigation, and we will take legal action once we have the full evidence of what wrong they went into,” Lam said. “It’s quite obvious that the flag carrier for Hong Kong is in deep trouble,” said Frederik Gollob, the chair of the European chamber of commerce in Hong Kong. “Cathay is of course a corporate company but has also had a social function for Hong Kong for decades. It’s certainly not a great sign seeing almost all flight activity for passenger flights [drop] and the significantly reduced capacity on the cargo side happening at the moment, as a result of very strict regulations for Covid-19. We’re extremely thankful to all the Cathay crew and the company for doing everything they can to keep us connected to the outside world and keeping up goods flow. Also the international carriers who do the same.”<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2022-01-17/oneworld/2018deep-trouble2019-cathay-pacific-descends-further-as-punitive-pandemic-worsens
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/logo.png
‘Deep trouble’: Cathay Pacific descends further as punitive pandemic worsens
As Omicron spread to at least 50 people in Hong Kong last week the government looked to one place in particular for blame – the city’s flagship airline, Cathay Pacific. Two crew were accused of breaching their home quarantine, going shopping or meeting friends, and spreading the highly transmissible variant in the city. As numbers rose, infection flow charts were published marking cases with the airline’s brand while the government launched inquiries and threatened legal action. Pro-Beijing figures and state media called for punishment. The airline had just come off a government ban on flying key international routes, a punishment for carrying Covid-positive passengers. Around the same time the ban was imposed in late December, quarantine rules were tightened after a pilot tested positive, and then again just days later after three crew also did, and then again after the latest incidents. On Tuesday, Hong Kong’s CE Carrie Lam described the airline as “a very big noncompliance case” and accused it of sending some crew back to the territory on empty cargo flights to access shorter quarantine periods. “This has to be put under full investigation, and we will take legal action once we have the full evidence of what wrong they went into,” Lam said. “It’s quite obvious that the flag carrier for Hong Kong is in deep trouble,” said Frederik Gollob, the chair of the European chamber of commerce in Hong Kong. “Cathay is of course a corporate company but has also had a social function for Hong Kong for decades. It’s certainly not a great sign seeing almost all flight activity for passenger flights [drop] and the significantly reduced capacity on the cargo side happening at the moment, as a result of very strict regulations for Covid-19. We’re extremely thankful to all the Cathay crew and the company for doing everything they can to keep us connected to the outside world and keeping up goods flow. Also the international carriers who do the same.”<br/>
