Cathay Pacific Airways is cutting all flights to Australia except for Sydney as the Hong Kong carrier grapples with new government pandemic restrictions.
From Saturday, February 20, the carrier will suspend its flights to Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth until the end of the month at least.
The airline said it is reviewing staffing numbers for March after authorities in Hong Kong announced plans to make local flight crews undergo 14 days' quarantine.
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"In view of the Hong Kong SAR Government's latest announcement, with effect from 20 February 2021, our Hong Kong-based pilots and cabin crew are required to undergo 14 days of hotel quarantine plus 7 days of medical surveillance when they return to Hong Kong after being on duty," Cathay Pacific said in a statement.
"We are actively managing our crew resources to plan for our flight services for March 2021."
Last week Hong Kong officials said city-based pilots and cabin crew must undergo quarantine in a designated hotel for 14 days, before re-entering the community and take an extra seven days of medical monitoring.
The decision is the latest by a global airline that has thrown travel plans into disruption for Australians stuck overseas.
Cathay Pacific will also cut other international routes including Frankfurt, Vancouver, San Francisco and Amsterdam. A one-way flight from Hong Kong to Tel Aviv will operate once in the initial two-week flight reduction period, on February 23.
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Last month, hundreds of citizens and permanent residents overseas were left stranded after Emirates abruptly cancelled flights between Dubai and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. The Dubai airline gave no details on when flights would restart, before it suddenly restarted the flights less than a week later.
From February 15 flight caps will be lifted, meaning more seats on planes and rooms in hotels will be available to returning Australians.
Like other airlines, Cathay Pacific has been hit hard by the pandemic. Last October it announced it was cutting 8500 jobs or 24 per cent of its workforce.
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