Covid Rules Relaxed For Local Passenger Crew

The government on Friday relaxed the quarantine arrangements for locally based air crew working on passenger flights.

From Saturday, locally based air crew working on passenger flights to and from overseas places and Taiwan will have to to undergo a nucleic acid test upon arriving at the Hong Kong airport, and can leave after they obtain a negative result.

They will then be subject to medical surveillance and are required to avoid mask-off activities in public places, refrain from going to crowded places and mass gatherings, and keep a log of their activities until the third day following their arrival.

They will also be subject to regular testing.

Airlines, meanwhile, will be held responsible for monitoring the activity logs of their staff.

At present, local passenger crew have to undergo three days of hotel quarantine followed by 11 days of medical surveillance.

“According to the statistics, the number and proportion of positive cases involving arrival air crew were minimal, and were far lower than that the relevant numbers of general inbound travelers,” the government said in a statement.

“Considering the latest epidemic situation in Hong Kong, the adjustments to the air crew quarantine arrangements should not bring significant additional risks to the local community.”

Authorities also said the new rule will “enable Hong Kong to play its role as an international aviation hub for bringing convenience to travellers and businesses, and facilitating recovery of normal economic and social activities”.

Hong Kong's flag carrier, Cathay Pacific, welcomed the adjustment, saying it will allow for more flights and destinations to be reactivated.

"While we will continue to add back more flights as quickly as is feasible, it will still take time to rebuild our capacity as we build operational readiness and undertake a substantial amount of training and aircraft reactivation," the airline wrote in a statement.

"This, combined with other operational complexities, means that capacity can only be increased gradually over a period of several months."

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