All inbound travellers at Hong Kong Airport will be tested for COVID-19 at a temporary specimen collection centre at the AsiaWorld-Expo in line with new Department of Health regulations. Read More » Hong Kong Airport said in a statement the inbound passengers from all flights would be taken by shuttle bus to the testing centre where deep throat saliva samples would be collected.
The International Air Transport Association [IATA] said up to 25 million people, including 11.2 million in the Asia-Pacific alone, could lose their jobs in the aviation sector amid the precipitous drop in passengers due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Japan's All Nippon Airways [ANA] said it would suspend nonstop service from Tokyo to Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai from April 25 to May 31. While scheduled flights on those three routes have been suspended, ANA said on its website some relief flights would operate on select dates in April.
Lion Air Group's Malaysian affiliate, Malindo Air, has suspended all services and put its staff on unpaid leave in response to the coronavirus pandemic, CEO Captain Mushafiz Mustafa Bakri said in a note to staff, Malaysia's New Straits Times has reported.
Korean Air said in a statement some 70% of its staff in South Korea would be placed on a six-month leave of absence starting on April 15 due to the deteriorating business environment caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Affected staff would receive about 70% of their normal pay, the bulk of which would be funded by the South Korean government under a special scheme set up in response to COVID-19, Agence France Presse news agency has reported.
Indian carrier, GoAir, has told FlightGlobal it was working towards a resumption of domestic flights on April 15 and international services from May 1, subject to government approvals. The Indian government's country-wide three-week lockdown to stop the spread of the coronavirus was due to end on April 14.
Air New Zealand plans to make 387 pilots redundant as the airline restructures its workforce in response to the coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand Air Line Pilots’ Association [NZALPA] president, Captain Andrew Ridling, said in a statement. He said the pilot union was "adamant that 387 was not a final number, with the NZALPA to continue a "robust and thorough consultation process required under the Employment Relations Act and our specific Collective Agreement".
The impact of the coronavirus can be shown in the monthly traffic figures for Seoul Incheon Airport, which reported passenger numbers plummeted 89.6%, to 609,516, in March, compared with the prior corresponding period. Total aircraft movements were down 71.2 per cent.
