I guess regional flights (such as Tokyo, Seoul, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore) may change to an afternoon departure from Hong Kong and crews will layover overnight overseas, then back to Hong Kong with a morning flight next day and continue onto another regional destination.

I might be wrong but I think if you turnaround without leaving the plane you don’t need to quarantine when returning to HK?

only if the return flight is empty.

Correct any flight with Passenger's inbound to Hong Kong then Cockpit and Cabin crew are subject to mandatory hotel quarantine Doesn't matter if the crew have come from Hong Kong or laid over any flight inbound with pax everyone crew included must quarantine

does CX carry transit paseengers, too?

The crew must have interacted with transit passengers anyway.

I am confused.
I thought SCMP said this mainly impacts HK-based airlines (CX/UO/HX/Air Hong Kong) and foreign airlines with HK crew bases, not foreign airlines with foreign crews (those that can do a turnaround)?

I'm confused too, and that's after talking to 2 cabin crew relatives.

They said they still do regular flights, and then they are sent directly from airport to Headland (the CX crew hotel in next to CX headquarters) in between flights. They repeat this for 3 weeks. Then they stop flying and quarantine for 2 weeks at East Hotel.

So apparently they can "enter" Hong Kong between flights and stay at Headland (not allowed to go anywhere else) and repeat this for 3 weeks, before they have 2-week quarantine at East Hotel.

35 days without seeing family, feeling isolated and worn out ... not sure how many people will say yes to it. However, there's an extra allowance of HK$1000-1300 per day and so some people will do it as they need the salary.

I get it for local crew. HKG <--> Headland routine means they are effectively in quarantine from most of the HK public until the end of their roster + 2 week quarantine.

There is asymmetry between local and overseas crew who aren't even allowed to stay in a local hotel (not allowed to go anywhere else) until their inbound flight.

You can analogise it to China-travelling auditors - we (at least in my day) go up for three-week shifts (shorter than the five CX crews are asked to do, of course).
Or more extreme, RN and USN submariners who do three month patrols.
But CX crews have not signed up for either. So it has to be voluntary - probably only young crew without much family commitments can sign up (or captains have to do this by roster).

For the passenger cabin and flight crew, there’s no that much harm in signing up. There’s so few flights happening that the chance of being chosen is not high. If you do get chosen then at least you get the dollars. And the company will be keeping a record of who is “co-operative” and who is not.

CX said passenger capacity will have to decrease by 2/3rds if (when) this measure has to be put in place https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/...-aircrew-could . I don't know how much of this is posturing but still I'm against any further reduction in passenger capacity - 21 day's mandatory hotel quarantine is quite enough.

Yup...just received email from CX notifying that 26 Feb CX 837 is cancelled. :(

I see CX is still selling CX837 on 26 Feb on its website.

I am astounded that HK wants to be so strict for airline crews but is still quite lax for diplomatic/government travellers.
Diplomatic/Government travel is currently a major source of international travel.
There is a lot of diplomatic staff in HK who can freely travel back to HK, because of so-called "diplomatic immunity".. Similarly for HK government official travelling abroad.

Despite very strict hotel quarantine rules , Hong Kong allowed incoming consular/diplomatic staff (including HK officials on official business abroad) to fully avoid any quarantine until 18 November This led to local infections. Then, only those arriving from high-risk countries had to self-isolate (not quarantine hotels like normal pax).
As of 23 January 2021, those arriving from 4 extremely high risk countries must follow the general rule (hotel quarantine), those arriving from a short list of 20 high-risk countries must self-isolate. No need to self-isolate from all other countries.
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My point is that "normal" pax, and now air crew, must be quarantined 21 days in government designated hotel without being allowed to leave the room or receive visitors (only 14 days in hotel for air crew plus 7 days self-isolation). On the other hand, the rules are quite lax for officials which must now represent a significant share of the small international traffic. This is a significant covid import risk.

I would think this is a concern for the crew? --> https://www.businesstraveller.com/bu...usiness-class/

of course, you are right. but very few people know about that. And while the government is "assuming" everybody with the aircrew, nobody talks about the other loopholes still existing. And even if some diplomatic staff or local official were to be infected, I doubt they would shout it loud everywhere