Just as things started to look better for Cathay Pacific the Hong Kong based airline receives a new blow. CX will have to cancel a significant number of flights in and out of Japan as a result of the new travel restrictions to passengers from China. Let’s take a closer look at what the news is all about.
Which Cathay Pacific Flights Will be Affected?
All Cathay Pacific destinations in Japan will be affected by the new travel restriction the Japanese government placed on travellers from China. These destinations are:
- Tokyo (both Narita and Haneda)
- Osaka
- Nagoya
- Fukuoka
- Sapporo
Although all destinations will be affected, they will suffer of different reductions of service from one and other.
How Will Flights CX Flights to Japan Change?
We need to make a distinction between flights from Hong Kong to Japan and those in the opposite direction.
From Hong Kong to Japan
Starting December 30th all Cathay flights to Nagoya and Fukuoka will be cancelled. Flights to Sapporo on the other hand will pass from a daily connections to a 5 times weekly one. The Monday and Wednesday flights will be cancelled. Tokyo and Osaka will be instead removed from the schedule only on selected days.
From Japan to Hong Kong
The airline will operate flights to help people return to Hong Kong, including ferry flights. Also all flights from Nagoya will no longer be part of the CX schedule. As is the case with flights from HK to Japan even on the return leg flights from Sapporo will become 5 from the current 7 weekly. However flights from Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka will get cancelled only on selected days.
What to Expect Next?
Although travel is now unrestricted out of China it is likely that many countries will place some sort of restriction. The most likely one we’ll see is having passengers present proof of a negative Covid test on China flights.
However more serious measures will depend only exclusively on how serious the cases coming out of the People’s Republic are. We’ll keep a close look on future developments.
