Recently, Cathay Pacific announced that they too have joined the race for a fully vaccinated flight.
A Planned Achievement
On Thursday, 22 April 2021 they stated: ‘‘We have flown Hong Kong residents home from London with our first fully and voluntarily vaccinated aircrew.’’
The Corporate Affairs team for Cathay Pacific informed Travel Radar that: ‘‘flight CX2252 departed from London Heathrow at 09:10 on 21 April and the Boeing aircraft carried some 300 passengers onboard.’’
‘‘Another CX2252 flight will be operated by a fully vaccinated crew, departing from London Heathrow on 28 April.’’
At this moment in time, Cathay Pacific has proposed to bring Hong Kong (HK) residents home from the United Kingdom (UK). This follows the December to January setback whereby a new, suspected UK variant of COVID-19 led Cathay Pacific to suspend flights from the UK to HK, and vice versa.
Since 8 April, passengers were able to book via their website for a flight between 21 – 28 April. However, as their website continues to state that flights from UK to Hong Kong in both directions remain suspended, it is unclear as to when the next set of dates will be made available. This will be especially frustrating for HK residents holding BNO (British National Overseas) passports who wish to fly Cathay Pacific to get to the UK.
Cathay Pacific’s recent flight demonstrates their approval and support of the vaccination programme, as exemplified by their willingness to store up to eight million doses a day for transport and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines.
First Things First
They join other leading airlines that pride themselves in the same regard. For instance, Etihad on 10 February announced that they were the first airline to vaccinate all crew members onboard against COVID-19.
Emirates too who operated an A380 flight whereby all 400 attendants were vaccinated from check-in to in flight staff.
This is certainly a great achievement for Cathay Pacific who are in full support of the vaccination project and are now making their way out of the January delay.
Which first vaccinated flight has been the most impressive to you? Let us know in the comments below.
