Another European airline suspends Hong Kong services

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Viewing 13 posts - 91 through 103 (of 103 total)

  • IanFromHKG
    Participant

    Hooray!

    https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1640053-20220321.htm?spTabChangeable=0

    It’s been a long time coming, but commonsense – sort of – has prevailed.

    You all know my views, but they were put more eloquently than me by a British expat who wrote this email to Carrie Lam and Sophia Chan:

    Dear Chief Executive
    I am writing to express not only my dissatisfaction but also my incomprehension and, frankly, disgust at your policies for dealing with Covid in Hong Kong.
    Time and time again you announce a policy, often contradictory to other, recent, announcements that fly in the face of science, medicine and the public good.
    You, personally, have taken Hong Kong from zero to the world’s worst outbreak in under 30 days and this is, solely, a result of your indecisiveness and poor decision making. I find it very difficult to believe that your scientific and medical advisors have steered you into this course of action, one that flies in the face of the evidence from the rest of the world.
    You have opened hair salons but closed beaches – please explain the thought process behind this to me.
    You place no restrictions upon public transport, including the densely packed MTR, but a family of 3 have to sit at two separate tables in a restaurant despite living in the same apartment. How does this prevent the spread of the virus?
    Arriving in Hong Kong and testing negative means that a traveler must spend 14 days, at their own expense, in a quarantine hotel (assuming that they can even get a booking) yet arriving and testing positive sees one carted off to a government paid-for facility and released after a negative test on the 6th day. Please, if you can, explain the logic of this to me.
    Why do we have 9 countries on the flight ban list when their situations are less severe than that of Hong Kong? Can you explain how it is more dangerous for Hong Kong to let people come home than it is for us to be able to travel?
    Can you justify to me why, as I look to travel home to the UK to see my father for what may well be the very last time, I need to be looking at an absolute minimum of 6 weeks away from my family in Hong Kong? Why the travel and cost constraints that you are imposing mean that I can’t even take them with me?
    Why have you not worked harder to get the population vaccinated, particularly the elderly, whilst making those of us who have suffer restrictions on our lives? Why haven’t the consumption vouchers been linked to vaccination status?
    You know the answer to these questions, we know that you know and you know that we know – so why, for the love of all that is decent, do you persist with this idiocy? If you, truly, cannot see the errors in your decision making to date then you have absolutely no business being in any position of power.
    Your actions to date have seen hundreds of, preventable, deaths, thousands of people lose their jobs and livelihoods, businesses close, mental health decline across all demographics, children’s’ education suffer, and the diminishment of Hong Kong’s reputation as business center and a city of stable government. You have done more, in 18 months, to damage Hong’s people, economy and reputation than any bad-actor could ever dream to do, and you are supposed to be on our side.
    You must, surely, understand that zero Covid, whether ‘dynamic’ or otherwise is an impossibility? If you haven’t, by now, accepted the advice from medical professionals that this virus is never going away then you must, by implication, by deliberately choosing ignorance. If you have not, by now, accepted that we need to start living, fully, with the virus and work towards restoring Hong Kong to its former status and vibrancy then, frankly, you have no business acting as our leader.
    I am sharing this letter on social media not to wallow in my own misery, mine is just one story amongst thousands, but because I want you to see this. I don’t just want to send you an email and receive an anodyne reply from a junior member of your staff.
    I, very much, hope that you will find the decency to reply.


    K1ngston
    Participant

    WOW O WOW that’s told them… eloquently and definitively

    4 users thanked author for this post.

    cwoodward
    Participant

    The lady is still fiddling while Rome (Hong Kong) burns!
    Todays announcement re ‘opening up” is another incomprehensible mess and BTW there are no rooms available in quarantine hotels should anyone want to visit this rapidly failing state – why you may perhaps ask – its because the government ended the 4/5 star quarantine hotel arrangements and/or failed to extend them or put new arrangements in place.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    cwoodward
    Participant

    Cathay Pacific shares substantial share gain today – now up by 22% this year.
    From
    (Bloomberg) — Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. shares jumped to their highest intraday level since June 2020 on Monday morning as Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that a flight ban on nine countries would be lifted and mandatory quarantine eased to seven days from 14.

    The shares rose as much as 4.9% before paring their gain to 0.8% at the midday trading break, still in line for the highest close in a year. They were also the best performers on a Bloomberg gauge of Asia-Pacific airline stocks.

    Cathay has been operating a skeleton schedule due to the tight restrictions on travel, including bans on services from key markets such as the U.S., U.K. and Australia as well as most transit traffic. Quarantine rules have also constrained aircrew.

    Monday’s rally took the stock’s gain to 22% for this year following slumps of 11% and 29% in 2021 and 2020, respectively.


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    The Marriott HK site failed today as we desperately tried to reorganise quarantine hotel bookings. Even the app failed. Goodness knows how many thousands, or tens of thousands, of people were searching for new quarantine bookings to make that happen.

    Ironically, I openly expressed the view on a number of occasions before we came to Thailand that the best thing that could happen for HK in the longer term was for Omicron to get in and let rip. That is, of course, precisely what happened. And although it has jolted our semblance-of-government out of their complacency/stupidity/[insert your own word(s) here], and will ultimately be good for Hong Kong, it has come at a terrible price in the shorter term for thousands of Hong Kong families. So I take no pride in being vindicated.

    I just hope that things will return to some sort of normality sooner rather than later, although we have decided to stick with our early retirement plan and will be leaving HK in or around September. So many families – tens of thousands of people each month – have left or are leaving as a result of incompetence, stupidity, arrogance, narrow-mindedness [ again, insert your own word(s) here]…

    Ah well…

    4 users thanked author for this post.

    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    Swiss appears to be the latest European carrier to suspend flights.

    Judging by some comments Swiss had scheduled flights for the near future but travellers booked on them will be rebooked with other Lufthansa Group airlines.

    Further changes are possible.


    cwoodward
    Participant

    Good to see a Finnair flight at the passenger gates this morning and also BA
    I am puzzled about the BA flight as according to schedules they are not flying to HK at the moment.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    This shows how changeable aviation is at the present time.

    Only a day or so ago Swiss was saying that its HKG service was suspended until October 2022.

    Now this morning (UK time) Swiss announces that its HKG service will continue after all.


    Woodpecker
    Participant

    https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/section/11/245522/British-Airways-to-fly-HK-skies-again

    As reported in this morning’s The Standard, BA website shows bookings open for LHR-HKG-LHR flights commencing December 6, 2022. However there has not been any official announcement from BA on the subject yet.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    cwoodward
    Participant

    This I believe has been common knowledge for some time….BA made an announcement re this several months ago.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    Now Virgin Atlantic says it will not be returning to HKG.

    At one time VS operated a double-daily service with one flight terminating in HKG and the other continuing to SYD.

    Virgin Atlantic drops Hong Kong route


    IanFromHKG
    Participant

    And to think there were once – if I recall correctly – six airlines on that route. And then (at least until December!) there was one…


    cwoodward
    Participant

    To add a little perspective re Virgin to HKG

    The airline was not doing well prior to the pandemic and with only one flight per day that no longer proceeded on to AU had found it difficult to compete with ether BA or Cathay on the route and had become something of a fringe player. Not being a member of an alliance was a further restraint on the loadings which were generally not good.

    Sad to see them go of course but with now the route being close to 2 hours longer and a no longer needed costly crew base in Hong Kong it is perhaps doubtful to the route would have ever been profitable for them unless they increased frequency and again flew on to AU.

    Being rather a small airline with relatively few long haul aircraft the pull-out is probably a sensible one that could be easily reversed when the general situation changes and they become profitable.

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