Orient Aviation Daily Digest: Cathay Dragon’s Hong Kong-Kuala Lumpur route suspended for two weeks after five transit passengers tested COVID-19 positive
Cathay Dragon said yesterday the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (CAD) had suspended its three times a week Hong Kong-Kuala Lumpur nonstop flight for two weeks after five people aboard KA735 from Kuala Lumpur tested positive to COVID-19.Read More » The airline, the regional wing of Cathay Pacific Group, said all five cases were connecting passengers from India on an Air India Express flight. The operating aircraft is undergoing deep cleaning. The carrier’s Hong Kong-Kuala Lumpur flights will resume on October 3 in accordance with CAD regulations. Air India also has been banned from flying into Hong Kong when it became known six passengers on a flight from Delhi on the Indian flag carrier were infected with the coronavirus.
Separately, the airline group and genetics and diagnostic health testing company, Prenetics, have announced the launch of a pilot digital health passport that will allow travellers to show their negative coronavirus test results on a mobile app. The program, to begin in October, will be conducted on the Hong Kong-London route. Prenetics said it was working towards the launch of a rapid COVID-19 nucleic acid test in the final quarter of 2020 that would produce a result within 30 minutes.
Disclosures to the Indian Parliament late last week by India Minister for Civil Aviation, Hardeep Singh Puri, and reported by local media revealed nine of Air India’s 242 domestic routes meet their total costs in the 12 months to March 2020. Air India's international network covered costs for 12 of its 98 routes. The minister's statement said the airline cited the losses were due to low demand, competitive fares at rival carriers and higher operating costs given Air India was a full-service carrier.
Separately, India’s Director General of Civil Aviation, Arun Kumar, has announced the results of a review of the nation’s open skies policy. Some changes had been made "with a view to ensure fair and equal opportunity in the air cargo capacity offered by Indian registered airlines and airlines registered elsewhere", he said. Operations of foreign ad hoc and pure non-scheduled freighter charter service flights were restricted to Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Mumbai airports, the notice said.
Overnight Boeing announced two freighter conversion lines would be established in China and Singapore. A second 737-800 Boeing Converted Freighter (BCF) line will be added at Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Company Limited (GAMECO) and will be ready for production in early 2021. ST Engineering's Singapore facility will open a second conversion line for the 767-300BCF later this year. Separately, Boeing said it had received an order for two 737-800BCFs from an unidentified customer.
Also overnight, the U.S. aerospace conglomerate tweeted a fourth 777-9X had completed its maiden flight and joined the program's flight test fleet. The aircraft, designated WH004, will test cabin systems, extended operations and more, the tweet said. Boeing plans the first delivery of the new aircraft type in 2022.
Vietjet has launched a new passenger product and upgraded an existing premium offering to bring more value to its customers. Called Deluxe, it offers its customers 7kg of carry-on luggage, up to 20kg of free checked luggage, complimentary flight care insurance and exemptions from fees for flight and route changes. Additionally, the LCC’s Skyboss product now provides 10kg of carry-on bags, 30kg of checked luggage, one golf club set under 15kg, lounge access, priority passage through the airport, complimentary insurance and free flow of in-flight food and drinks on board.
Sydney Airport said at the turn of the week 129,000 passengers passed through its terminals in August 2020, down 96.5% from 3.7 million a year earlier and 59% below the 317,000 it processed in July 2019. For the month, domestic passengers declined by 96.1%, to 91,000 year on year, and international passengers were down 97.2% to 39,000. "We expect the downturn in passenger traffic to persist until government travel restrictions are eased," Sydney Airport said in a regulatory filing to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Fiji Airways, which has suspended all flights until at least the end of October, has withdrawn its sole 737-700 from service. DQ-FJF departed Nadi on September 18, flying first to Honolulu then Los Angeles, Bangor and finally Teeside International in the UK, flight tracking websites showed. An airline spokesperson confirmed on Twitter the aircraft had been returned to its lessor.
