Hong Kong Considering Easing Covid Rules for Foreign Air Crew

(Bloomberg) -- Hong Kong is mulling a significant relaxation of its stringent Covid-19 travel rules for foreign flight crew, including dropping on-arrival virus tests, a key demand called for last week by major airlines.

Consulates and foreign chambers of commerce were told of the plan that's being considered by Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Tuesday, according to people with knowledge of the discussions. Lam is considering implementing a so-called closed-loop system for non-domestic aircrew, which would enable them to travel in and out of the city relatively freely, as long as they have no contact with the local community, the people said, asking not to be identified given the talks were confidential.

Details of the mooted arrangement were revealed at an online meeting of the International Business Committee, attended by Hong Kong's leader and around 130 participants. Chief Secretary John Lee and Economic Development Secretary Edward Yau were also on the video call, the people said.

Representatives for Lam didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Hong Kong's transport bureau also didn't immediately respond to Bloomberg News.

Hong Kong Urged by Major Airlines to Drop Covid Tests for Crew

Under pressure from the business community, Hong Kong has unveiled a number of changes in recent weeks to its Covid policies, which have left the financial hub isolated and have been criticized as ineffective after they failed to keep out the omicron variant. The amount of time travelers have to spend in quarantine upon entering Hong Kong has been halved, and a flight ban on nine countries deemed at high risk for the virus, including the U.S., U.K. and Australia, is being lifted. The government also eased its airline route ban mechanism, with carriers who fly in infected passengers now banned for seven days instead of 14.

At the meeting, Lam also briefed participants on the government's latest Covid work, and committed that children would no longer be separated from their parents when isolated for Covid, unless they were critically ill, the people said. As part of the flight-crew shift, the government is considering allowing foreign crew do a rapid antigen test before they fly to Hong Kong, and then bypass Covid screening on arrival, they said.

Discouraging Airlines

Mandatory on-arrival PCR tests have been a key complaint of airlines, which say they take too long to yield a result. The consequences for positive cases and crew that are deemed close contacts have been discouraging carriers from flying to Hong Kong.

The government is also seeking a designated hotel for non-local aircrew, the people familiar with the matter said. As part of the closed-loop system being considered, it's also mulling organizing dedicated and closed-off transport between the plane and the hotel, they added.

Mainland China has increasingly been deploying closed loops after a version of the system was deployed for the Winter Olympics in Beijing. It kept all athletes and support staff completely separate to the local population, preventing any virus transmission. Similar systems have allowed some factories to remain open and functioning amid lockdowns in Shenzhen and Shanghai.

Shanghai Factories Isolate Staff to Keep Operating in Lockdown

China continues to adhere to a zero-tolerance approach to the virus, with effectively closed borders, mandatory quarantines and mass testing to root out cases key tools in their arsenal. The Covid Zero strategy -- which Hong Kong says it also still maintains, despite thousands of infections -- is being increasingly challenged by more transmissible variants, especially as the rest of the world opens up.