HONG KONG — Hong
Kong's strict adherence to a zero-
COVID strategy is damaging the hub's aviation
industry and "killing" Cathay Pacific, a major shareholder in the
city's home carrier told local media.
اضافة اعلان
Following Beijing's lead, Hong Kong has
maintained some of the world's strictest quarantine measures and travel curbs,
which has kept the city coronavirus-free but internationally isolated.
Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al-Baker took issue
with a border-control rule that temporarily bans airlines that have brought in
infected passengers.
"You can’t just shut the aviation
industry (down) because somebody got infected coming in (on) someone’s
airplane," he told the South China Morning Post.
Baker added that he was "a little
disappointed" that Hong Kong has remained closed, and he had expected a
major part of Cathay's fleet to be flying again.
Qatar Airways is Cathay's third-largest
shareholder, with a 9.6 percent stake purchased for HK$5.16 billion ($661
million) in 2017.
Under Hong Kong's rules, if an airline brings
in too many infected passengers on a particular route, it is banned from flying
that route for two weeks.
Those rules have been tightened over fears
of the Omicron variant, which Hong Kong has recorded 14 cases of as of Friday.
Qatar Airways has been banned five times
since November 2020, according to the SCMP.
Last month,
British Airways announced it was
suspending
Hong Kong flights after crew members were required to quarantine
following a positive COVID test among the staff.
Earlier this month, AFP reported that Cathay
has been hit by a wave of pilot resignations, with employees citing exhaustion
and growing resentment.
Some Cathay flights operate on a closed-loop
system, requiring pilots to spend weeks shuttling within plane-to-hotel bubbles
to avoid triggering quarantine when they return.
Global delivery giant
FedEx said last month
that it would relocate its pilots overseas and shut down its crew base in Hong
Kong, citing the city's anti-coronavirus policies.
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