Hong Kong quarantine relaxation to promote airfreight connectivity

Hong Kong’s lifting of a mandatory quarantine for local flight crews on cargo-only service will improve airfreight connectivity, but capacity will still fall short of current demand due to ocean freight challenges pushing more cargo to air, according to Hong Kong-based freight forwarder Apex Logistics. [caption id="attachment_91054" align="alignright" width="450"] Photo courtesy of Pittsburgh Airport.[/caption] Hong Kong announced this week that fully vaccinated flight crews based in the city will no longer be subject to a mandatory 14-day quarantine if returning from a country that is not deemed very high-risk. Hong Kong classifies Brazil, Ireland, South Africa and the United Kingdom as extremely high-risk countries for COVID-19, and local reports indicate that Indonesia, the Philippines and India will also be included. The previous restrictions caused significant upheaval in air cargo connectivity and operations for cargo carriers with Hong Kong-based crews, including FedEx Express and especially for local carrier Cathay Pacific Airways. Last month, Cathay told Air Cargo World that the 14-day quarantine requirement for its flight crews stationed in the city forced it to reduce its weekly freighter frequencies from HKG to the U.S. from a typical 35 to 39 flights to only 21 to 28 flights. The return of lost flights to and from HKG by Cathay Pacific and other carriers is welcome news to freight forwarders, although in the current market “it is not enough to satisfy the incredible demand we are still seeing,” Mike Piza, senior vice president for corporate business development and customs brokerage, told Air Cargo World . Piza said that due to the many current challenges for ocean cargo, from limited equipment to the delays caused by the Suez Canal blockage in March, are “spilling over into the airfreight market.” “We are seeing very large volumes of ocean freight converted to airfreight over the next few weeks,” Piza said. As more shippers and freight forwarders transfer cargo from ocean to airfreight to avoid current delays in ocean shipping, the market is likely to remain strained for at least the next two to three months, Piza added. In Cathay’s March results released today, Chief Customer and Commercial Officer Ronald Lam said the removal of quarantine requirements for fully vaccinated crews on cargo-only missions would “have a positive impact on our cargo business while also progressively reducing our monthly operating cash burn.” FedEx had temporarily relocated its HKG-based crew members to San Francisco (SFO) in advance of the quarantine requirements after union leadership representing its pilots called on the integrator to suspend Hong Kong operations over the quarantine requirements. FedEx also responded positively to this week’s change. “We welcome the efforts made by Hong Kong to address the quarantine regulations for locally based crew members, and we are evaluating how these changes will impact our Hong Kong-based crew members,” a FedEx spokesperson told Air Cargo World . The integrator said it is continuing to work with the U.S. and Hong Kong governments in relation to crew safety and security.

Hong Kong quarantine relaxation to promote airfreight connectivity

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