Hong Kong Suspends Air India Flights Till October 3

The Civil Aviation Authorities of Hong Kong has suspended Air India flight operations for a fortnight till October 3 after passengers aboard were found to be infected with COVID-19.

As per the Centre for Health Protection, One-third of the 23 new cases were in people who had recently traveled from India in Air India flights. Only four local infections were reported.

This is the second such instance when Hong Kong has suspended Air India flights for carrying too many passengers infected with COVID-19. Earlier on August 18, the Hong Kong authorities has suspended the Indian national carrier till August 31.

The second ban has been put in place from September 20.

“Hong Kong civil aviation authority has advised AI not to operate for two weeks from September 20 to October 3,” A senior official said

“There is only one flight scheduled in two weeks, i.e Delhi- Hong Kong, on September 21. That flight is canceled, and passengers have been informed.”

Last week, Dubai’s civil aviation authorities suspended the operations of low-cost carrier Air India Express for 14 days from 18 September to 2 October, after the Indian carrier was found to have flown COVID-19 infected passengers to Dubai.

However, the aviation authorities in the Gulf emirate has revoked the suspension hours later and re-allowing the Air India’s no-frill subsidiary Air India Express to operate flights as per the previous schedule.

Hong Kong has also temporarily suspended Cathay Dragon, a regional international airline, from operating flights on the Kuala Lumpur route. Cathay Dragon has also been banned till October 3

A media report said that five passengers on the airline had flown to Malaysia on an Air India Express service before connecting to Cathay Dragon.

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