BA cancel all flights to and from China due to Coronavirus
 

Coronavirus: BA suspends flights to and from mainland China - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51292590

What are you thoughts?

Maybe on advice from the FO? Perhaps the FO have greater visibility as to the extent of the virus in China and have decided to limit movement of people to and from the country.

In the last few hours the U.K. FCO changed it’s travel advice to “....advise against all but essential travel to the rest of mainland China (not including Hong Kong and Macao)”. Given that advice and also given the company has a duty of care to it’s crew members operating flights to/from China and as a consequence laying over in either Beijing or Shanghai I’d say it’s a reasonable decision.

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china

Sounds reasonable. Just wondering when/if others wilk follow? Gulf carriers? US carriers?

Potentially a commercial decision too. Apparently intercontinental loads inbound to China from Europe and the USA have plummeted this week. But arrangements for crew hotac, and serving a planeload of China departing pax at close quarters, are likely uppermost.

We flew to Shanghai a couple of days ago, only about a 100 on the BA 777-200. I would have changed the plans but BAs announcements came out too late, we did however, cancel our plans for Shanghai and connected straight to Hanoi. The return is from Singapore, fingers crossed that the isolated cases there remain just that. What was interesting is that on our Vietnam Airlines flight the crew were permitted to wear masks whilst BA had neither provided nor allowed their own crew the same, albeit limited, protection.

What's that about shutting the stable door ?

Returning pax from UK to China are to be put in quarantine for 2 weeks. At least someone is taking it seriously.

If only more captains would listen to the FO the world would be a safer place 🤪

Whats the legal position on being forcibly quarantined in the UK? Would it be possible to refuse? Does HMG pay compensation for lost days at work? I could see a few problems with this.
will the crew flying the pax back also be quarantined? I know how stingy BA are so I’d expect the crew to be unpaid during this period.

​​​​​​Seriously... or is UK following the panic pandemic?

Not every Chinese city, only Wuhan. Australia doing the same.

Knowing a thing or two about the decision making process at Waterside, I'd say this was a purely commercial decision based on falling passenger numbers and projected LF, with the PR dapertment tasked with coming up with a heart-wrenching story about the deep concern for the wellbeing of passengers and crew.

Cynic? Who, me ...?

This has been a feature of the Far East for some time, certainly since the last event some years ago. Cathay Pacific commonly has for a while had one or two cabin staff per flight who choose to wear this.

and what's being done to catch people flying into the UK and Europe who choose to travel via Dubai and Qatar (other hubs are available) ?. Reports on the radio this morning were that ex China flights to the middle east were way over subscribed.

Returnee's have to sign an agreement to be quarantined, else they stay in China. I cannot see many being able to return - the roads are blocked and there is no other way of getting to the airport.

https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/a...011109306.html

From what you can read elsewhere, facemasks (like those prevalent in South East Asia), don't appear to actually work in this instance... they are more a placebo for the crew than an effective barrier.

Ttfn

You may find that the quarantine is only for those people coming out of China to the UK on specifically operated 'evacuation flights". Thats what the Daily Mail, the epitome of British Journalism and facts is reporting.

Some eye protection might be more useful. All chinese medical personal seem to wear it now.

In an item heard on the radio this morning, BA flights are suspended until early March. So, none at all for February.