LONDON – Hundreds of Cathay Pacific personnel who have passed through Frankfurt Airport have been ordered to quarantine for 21 days after three staff members tested positive for COVID-19.

This is a new policy instigated by the airline that all pilots and cabin crew that have passed through the German airport will have to isolate.

In an internal memo released by the carrier, they went into more detail about this:

“Cathay Pacific fully recognizes the Hong Kong SAR government’s mission to keep Hong Kong free from COVID-19.”

“As the home carrier of Hong Kong, Cathay Pacific is fully committed to protecting and enhancing Hong Kong’s aviation hub status and to keeping the flow of people and cargo between Hong Kong and the rest of the world moving despite the challenging circumstances presented by the pandemic.”

It is understood also that the airline has changed hotel providers in Frankfurt as well due to this, but the quarantine requirements remain the same in that case.

With Frankfurt being the cargo gateway in Europe for the airline, they are doing all they can to ensure there is no disruption to the network:

“We are trying our best to maintain our cargo network as much as we can. It is very important to keep the flow of cargo between Hong Kong and the rest of the world.”

This move is going to be another drawback for the airline, as it will lose out on pilots at any point three weeks at a time, so rostering carefully for Frankfurt will of course be very important going forward, until all cases are negative again.