What Covid Restrictions Are Doing To Hong Kong’s Airport, And What Quarantine There Is Like

by Gary Leff

News and notes from around the interweb:

  • JetBlue hires the managing director of the American Airlines operations center to fix their operations. I don’t know Steve Olson, so don’t directly have an opinion, but seems like American wouldn’t be the first place you’d go to troubleshoot ops. Meanwhile the previous head of operations is being retired, though no one more senior has faced consequences for JetBlue’s poor performance this year.

  • The pilot shortage led SkyWest to plan to operate tag flights connecting several cities where they operate subsidized service, and even changing the destination of flights from Detroit to Minneapolis. Basically cities with these federal Essential Air Service contracts have to agree to the changes, and so many people are shocked that they’re willing to trade non-stop service to a nearby hub for connecting service to a less convenient hub. But without enough pilots, cities view the alternative as no service at all.

    Surprisingly then, Alpena County Regional Airport in Michigan (where part of Die Hard 2 was filmed), will keep subsidized non-stop service to Detroit after all.

  • Can Aman’s luxury honed in Southeast Asia succeed in Manhattan?

  • Russian sanctions have been a boom for Helsinki’s airport as travelers cross the border into Finland to start their journeys. (HT: Paul H) All it takes it one EU country to issue a visa and they can use it to enter Finland.

    Russians continue to enter Finland with visas issued by other EU countries in the Schengen borderless travel area for their journeys. “They come here on Schengen visas issued by various different countries and then continue further via Helsinki airport,” Haavisto said.

    According to a survey conducted by the Finnish border guard in August, about two-thirds of Russians crossing Finland’s eastern border do so with a Schengen visa issued by a country other than Finland.

  • Waldorf Astoria is switching to Aesop toiletries albeit in 500ml bottles rather than single guest size. I first discovered Aesop at the Park Hyatt Tokyo, got hooked, and now I buy it using my Amex Saks credits.

  • Sad.

  • Hong Kong still means quarantine.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

More articles by Gary Leff »

Comments

  1. Gary writes: “The pilot shortage led SkyWest to plan to operate tag flights connecting several cities where they operate subsidized service, and even changing the destination of flights from Detroit to Michigan.”

    Huh? Anyone have any clue what “changing the destination of flights from Detroit to Michigan” means?

    Apparently writing in coherent statements isn’t part of “thought leadership”

  2. As someone who has been travelling to Hong Kong for several decades, I find it astonishing and sad that this Covid nonsense could still be going on there. Surely they must now know they can’t stop Omicron with a quarantine, and that the virus is now no more deadly than all the other respiratory viruses that are always floating around. Isn’t there anyone in Hong Kong willing to stand up and say “Hey, guys, it’s time to be normal”? Why do they want to destroy their society?

  4. Food is a mild issue for Hong Kong. Major concern is China’s COVID policy and the possibility of being detained and having young children separated from you. I cancelled a business class reward flight for 4 on Cathay Pacific and changed to flying through Japan in coach for this reason. It’s a low chance but why take the risk and it isn’t a risk in virtually every other country. Check out the us state department warning.

  5. Just passed thru HK transit wise. The airport was dead. Found one open lounge and it was deserted and closing early. Very sad.

  6. White people (aka birds**t-skins) please stay the f*** out of Asian territories.

Comments are closed.