Hong Kong bypassed? European airlines warn they can’t add flights while Covid-19

“While European airlines remain committed to Hong Kong, we hope to see a further improvement of crew conditions and easing of quarantine restrictions to allow more business and leisure travellers to come to Hong Kong,” she said.

The travel council, which represents the carriers Air France, Finnair, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Lufthansa Group and Virgin Atlantic, also hoped Hong Kong would stop suspending flights by airlines that brought in travellers who tested positive for Covid-19.

So far this year, Hong Kong has imposed 85 bans on flight routes.

Although the city eased some restrictions for travellers on May 1, the industry remained unhappy with the seven-day compulsory quarantine for all arrivals.

Foreign aircrew who lay over in Hong Kong must take rapid antigen tests before their flight and on arrival in the city, and are then taken to a hotel to self-isolate in their rooms until they fly out.

In contrast to this “closed loop” system, Chu pointed out that other parts of the world had begun allowing aircrew to have normal layovers.

“When everywhere is ramping up quickly, we all have some level of resource constraints or aircraft equipment constraints and resources will go to places where it is easier to operate, where there are fewer restrictions,” she said.

Chu added that aircrew did not find it appealing to be confined to their hotel rooms in Hong Kong when they could have a normal layover elsewhere.

“While airlines want to add flights, we have to have crew who are willing or happy to fly to Hong Kong,” Chu said.

As airlines planned their flight schedules beyond the summer into winter, it would be hard to increase capacity, as long as foreign crew restrictions and quarantine remained in place.

With Singapore and Bangkok now easier for travellers to transit through, airlines were shifting demand away from Hong Kong to those hubs.

The director general of the International Air Transport Association, Willie Walsh, told media in Singapore on Monday that it would take years for Hong Kong to rebuild its network.

“That opportunity is going to go to other airports in the region. Singapore will clearly benefit. The Middle East hub airports will see that as an opportunity,” he said.

On Thursday, Professor Yuen Kwok-yung, a microbiologist, joined fellow Hong Kong government pandemic adviser Dr David Hui Shu-cheong in urging the authorities to scrap the flight-ban mechanism and resume global business and aviation activities.

Despite relaxing some restrictions, Hong Kong has not seen a sharp rise in arrivals, with only 1,770 non-residents at its airport from May 1 to 19, according to official data.

Meanwhile, arrivals at Singapore’s Changi Airport were expected to reach more than 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels this month and touch 50 per cent later this year.

According to data from global aviation consultancy Cirium, there are no flights to Hong Kong in May and June for Finnair, KLM or Virgin Atlantic. Lufthansa had scheduled 19 flights in June, and Swiss…