Airlines and cabin crew were fined a total of NT$10.34 million (US$367,775) in the past two years for contravening COVID-19 disease prevention rules set by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) data showed.
The CAA recorded 49 breaches of COVID-19 rules by pilots and flight attendants of Taiwanese airlines from March 2020 to Wednesday last week, 23 of which were recorded among China Airlines crew, 24 from EVA Airways and two from Starlux Airlines.
Fines totaling NT$4.74 million were administered for those 49 incidents, the CAA said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
China Airlines and EVA as business entities were found to have contravened disease prevention rules and paid fines totaling NT$5.6 million, it said.
Thirty-two pilots and four flight attendants had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of Wednesday last week, CAA data showed.
Fourteen pilots contracted the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, 12 of whom returned on flights from the US and two from Europe, the agency said.
The pilots tested positive for Omicron while in CECC-mandated five-day quarantine followed by nine days of self-health management, the CAA said, adding that none of the flight attendants working on the same flights as the pilots tested positive.
Breaches of disease prevention regulations declined after the CECC in September last year required cabin crew to quarantine at hotels and government facilities rather than at home, the agency said.
As of Wednesday last week, 99.8 percent of more than 10,220 cabin crew at nine Taiwanese airlines had been fully vaccinated, with 91.8 percent having received at least one booster shot, it said.
The CECC is to implement a new quarantine policy for cabin crew on Monday. Flight attendants who have received at least one booster shot are to quarantine for five days and observe self-health management for another five.
Those who have not received a booster are to follow the same regimen with an additional four days of self-health management.
“We hope that the new policy gives cabin crew some breathing room, as they have been on a seemingly endless cycle of quarantine and testing over the past year,” CAA Deputy Director-General Clark Lin (林俊良) said.
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