Hong Kong to reduce quarantine to 7 and open up to non residence

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  • cwoodward
    Participant

    Announced yesterday HK will reduce entry quarantined to 7 days for vaccinated residence and are intending to open to vaccinated non residence from all but the worst effected countries later in July providing that the virus situation here remains stable with now no local infections.
    This must be the answer to most of Cathay Pacific’s prayers.

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    FormerBA
    Participant

    The answer to Cathay’s prayers is surely the lifting of restrictions on vaccinated travelers? While Cathy no doubt has a strong market presence in Hong Kong, it is a tiny fraction of their business which is predominately transit traffic, many of whom may chose to spend a few days in the city.

    I entirely get the need for caution, just look at the state of the UK in comparison thanks to policies driven by the PMs travel plans. But the world does need to start opening up to fully vaccinated travelers.


    LaWhore
    Participant

    Very little will change for Cathay Pacific. They rely on traffic flows particularly into Australia which remains closed.


    AMcWhirter
    Participant

    SCMP video:


    Gin&Tonic
    Participant

    HONG KONG authorities just changed quarantine to 21 days to UK arrivals

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    FormerBA
    Participant

    Cathay have now zeroed out HKG DPS for all of August. They are not cancelled but this is generally a precursor to that, Aside from my holiday going down the drain, the impact financially on Bali will simply drag on and on. In part the issues is the lack of detail on when and how it will reopen without which, people wont book.


    Tom Otley
    Keymaster

    I seem to be able to do a booking to Hong Kong in August (returning in September), but at the same time, we are also hearing reports of Hong Kong stopping flights from the UK. Not sure if anyone has a source for this?
    I also note that in terms of vaccinations, on the Cathay site it says
    “For passengers travelling from the United Kingdom
    The NHS (National Health Service) test report does not meet the Hong Kong entry requirements and will not be accepted.”
    Which is strange.
    Tom


    Chris in Makati
    Participant

    [quote quote=1104069]The NHS (National Health Service) test report does not meet the Hong Kong entry requirements and will not be accepted.”
    Which is strange.[/quote]

    For vaccinations, the Cathay website says “Proof of your vaccination status. For passengers vaccinated in the UK, Cathay Pacific will only accept your vaccination record card, your printed NHS COVID-19 vaccination certificate from the NHS website or digitally through the NHS app.”

    For the pre-departure test, I think the only tests that anyone accepts are those carried out by private testing companies. I don’t think the NHS even does those.


    Gin&Tonic
    Participant

    All UK direct flights suspended from July 1


    cwoodward
    Participant

    With air travel starting to be again a realistic prospect it is perhaps interesting to plot which of the worlds hard hit airlines will recover the strongest and fastest in the coming months.
    In Asia Pacific I suspect that is likely to be Singapore and the Cathay group.
    I know rather more about Cathay than I do about Singapore and below are is my reasoning as to why Cathay will continue to be a strong force in the coming years very possibly at the expense of several of its weaker less well run competitors.

    Although one of the airlines hardest hit by Covid 19 due to the lack of any domestic market Cathay appears to be in surprisingly robust shape with reported cash reserves of B38 HKD with a 2021 net cash burn of less than 1B a month and reducing. Over 3000 pilots and some 13000 cabin crew still employed and plans to boost scheduled passenger flights from the current 7-8% to 30% at the end of September. The large relatively new fleet also looks looks in good shape with few leased aircraft and several older of these leased aircraft not being renewed as leases expire. New aircraft still being delivered with several new Airbus aircraft being (A321 A350) delivered so far in 2021 for both Cathay and the Hong Kong Express subsidiary -the last being an A350-1041 to CX delivered in May. Additional freighters to the Air Hong Kong subsidiary have also been added and it is reported that also some older Cathay A330s have been converted (possibly temporarily) to freighters. In all CX looks fairly well set for 2022.

    Which of the European, North American, Middle Eastern and Australasian majors will emerge stronger for 2022 and what would drive this strong recovery and what will be the emerging situation with African airlines one wonders ?


    emilyakevin
    Participant

    Reducing quarantine days is good for tourism and business travel, but vaccinated travelers should be given more exemptions.

    1 user thanked author for this post.

    MartynSinclair
    Participant

    The latest modifications to the UK green list for quarantine free travel really does highlight how far apart countries are in terms of ‘covid era’ travel.

    HKG to UK – now Green, virtually free travel into the UK from HKG, subject to PCR tests
    UK – HKG – 21 days prisoner style quarantine in approved hotel plus a further 7 days self monitoring

    Surely travel corridors need to be established and agreed to enable free travel in both directions..

    2 users thanked author for this post.

    cwoodward
    Participant

    I fully agree that for travellers the 21 day quarantine is a huge disincentive but of course one other side of the many sided coin is the protection of the local population and yet another the survival and recovery of business that so desperately needed.

    Here in Hong Kong after a long as yet unfinished battle we have had only one local infection in the past 36 days and that infection was caught from foreign air crew at the airport. Fortunately this seems to have been contained
    To me it me it has seemed that the UK rather missed the bus in not putting HK on the green list while UK infections were low with the HK quarantine thus only 7 days as a result.

    Most developed countries are wrestling with the conundrum of how to balance the beating of pandemic and the resulting free movement of people against the safety of there local populations which for all is in itself a journey into uncharted waters. There are thus no right or wrong solutions just degrees of inconvenience for all of us business travellers.

    As a world leading trade led economy the damage to the Hong Kong is devastating and far more serious than non trade led economies such as the locked down New Zealand or the UK. The government here is thus desperate to open the borders.

    On a brighter note I feel that the HK government will again reduce the quarantine requirements immediately that the situation in the UK improves as seems to be expected due to the high vaccination rate.

    2 users thanked author for this post.
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