I have no doubt the company is making a **** ton of money filling the belly freight vacuum.
They’re putting an MD on NRT-SIN. Japan has yet to make any significant restrictions regarding the coronavirus. Singapore‘s have been the same since it’s kicked off and we simply deal with that by going to the terminal hotel and not actually entering.
If the company was worried about actually being proactive and building a cogent plan to deal with the various restrictions, the first thing they would’ve done is position crews at all the non-China outstations and have them fly turns in and out of CAN. That way no one would actually have the China stink on them. This would allow relatively normal operations in Vietnam and the Philippines which have been significantly affected by the fact that no crews can actually enter either country if they’ve been in China. Most importantly it would also keep crews safer and away from ground zero. The company’s plan up to now has been to just be completely reactionary, so I think it’s a pretty safe assumption that the change to the MD is purely based on lift and a short term money grab.
Ether that or it’s a big money route they don’t want to risk since they’re having a hard time filling normal HKG flying with HKG crews who are so fed up with the BS and are staying home and not excepting draft.