paulieuk

13 British Airways cabin crew have to spend two weeks in an airport quarantine facility in Hong Kong after one of them tested positive for Covid-19 following the swab test taken by all those arriving at HKG.

A BBC News correspondent has seen pictures of the 'basic government accommodation', which show a small room with a basic bed. BA says it is in “regular contact” with the crew and is providing them with extra supplies “to make their stay as comfortable as possible.”

A BA spokesperson said “We work closely with governments in every country we fly to, and will always put the safety and wellbeing of our teams and customers at the heart of everything we do.”

mikeyfly

Noted on the BA in the media thread yesterday

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...-2020-a-3.html

MarkFlies

I wonder if they are being paid while there.

brunos

A cabin crew arriving BA31 on 22 September tested positive. No pax tested positive.
According to protocol, the other cabin crew should be isolated too. The pilots who did not have contact with that FA have been allowed to fly back but isolated from the pax.
I guess that this led to the cancellation of BA32 HKG-LHR departing 25 and 26 September as that crew was supposed to fly those return flights. Similarly BA31 on 24 september was cancelled.
Big mess. And BA will have a bad mark. It is very rare nowadays that cabin crew test positive
With the low traffic and to avoid the risk, some longhaul airlines have stopped flying to HKG (e.g. AF), KL makes a stop in BKK to have no crew overnighting in HKG.

corporate-wage-slave

The conditions do look a bit grim, I must say. There are better appointed prisons in the Nordics. It may prompt the authorities to do something about this, otherwise I can imagine cabin crew will be very reluctant to go there. And at some point BA will say "it's not worth it". I remember the efforts they did recently to secure crews flying into BEY for example, and that was just some demonstrations. PCR (swab) testing is the best we have, but it's still not perfect, and a 2 week quarantine based on someone else in a crew showing up positive is to say the least a tough outcome.

GumshoeW12

Hopefully better than what it’s currently inflicting on its paying punters!

brunos

Indeed.
The "positive" accomodation is basic but clean and safe. That is the lot of every HongKonger testing positive without symptoms. Medical surveillance is excellent and transfer to hospital rapid if symptoms. Food can be brought from the outside and will be left by the hospital staff at the door. Contact cases might be housed elsewhere. But they won't be allowed to get out of their room for the duration of their quarantine.

Note that HK is very strict with covid. HK had less than 150 daily cases at the top of the "third" wave (population 7.5M) and is now down to a couple of cases per day. Many cases had been imported cases, majority from UK returning students early summer.

To illustrate the protocol: I just arrived in HK yesterday. All arriving pax are tested at the airport. Arriving in the afternoon, I was taken by bus to a government-run hotel to spend the night awaiting for the results. Pax arriving in the morning wait results at the airport (typically 8 hours). Then I went home with total isolation (no right to go out whatsoever) with an electronic wristband linked to my mobile phone that detects if you go out and send an alert. Friends and delivery services bring food to my door. If my test was positive and no symptoms, I would have been taken to the same facility as the BA FA. The only difference is that airline personnel can wait results at their hotel (but forbiden to leave their room).

NOTE that UK has just been placed on the high-risk list (like India, USA,..). All UK arriving pax and crew will have to undergo a PCR test within 72h of departure. They also are required to book a hotel for 14 days and not leave their room. This is to avoid the risk of family/friends contamination if they stay at their HK home.

Agent69

forced out of their plush Marriott hotel by the authorities and shuttled to an austere Covid quarantine camp elsewhere in the Chinese city - doesn't sound ideal

Wonder how many of the crew and passengers were running the new NHS Covid-19 track and trace app?

mikeyfly

Nil assuming they departed on Weds night's flight, then the app wasn't available prior to departure

Confus

BA’s recent loads exHKG have been some of the highest on the network.

neofung

Too many hong kong kids are studying in UK

Flying Doctor

So that will be a 12% load factor as opposed to 10% then..............

FD.

13901

A Cypriot supplier of my company has rapid tests for all their travelling employees. These guys aren't even allowed to go to the airport on duty travel (and as they look after critical infrastructure they do have dispensations pretty much everywhere) if they haven't tested negative. The tests are quick saliva tests made by a Korean company and used by Japan (as well as various European countries). Why can't BA this sort of stuff? I understand that the government doesn't allow us mere passengers to use them - for reasons that escape my understanding, but Boris works in mysterious ways - but a private company could source and use these tests for its own employees. Beats the situation this crew is in Hong Kong right now.

mikeyfly

I’d like to think hospitals and old folks homes would be first in line for this technology rather than airline staff or passengers

ClipperDelta

Could BA have prevented this situation by having an intermediate/technical stop on the way to/from HKG so the crew would not have to overnight in HKG or Mainland China (don't know if they have resumed flights to PVG or PEK yet)? The US carriers have all added a technical stop on all their flights to HKG and PVG from the US Mainland precisely to not have their crew overnight in China or HK (DL and UA both now fly to PVG via ICN; UA flies to HKG via GUM or NRT while AA is stopping in NRT on the way to HKG); in addition, KL flies to HKG from AMS via BKK...in all these cases, the crew overnight in ICN or NRT or GUM or BKK where I believe air crew are exempt from quarantine etc., in order to avoid situations like this..