Coronavirus outbreak
Turkish Airlines flight delayed at Changi over Covid-19 concerns
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The Ministry of Health has started contact tracing for passengers on a Turkish Airlines flight who may have had contact with the affected passenger. The plane was scheduled to depart from Changi Airport at 11:35pm last night. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also in contact with the Turkish Embassy.
ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
Karamjit Kaur
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Singapore's Ministry of Transport has delayed a Turkish Airlines flight that was scheduled to depart from Changi Airport at 11.35pm last night.
MOT said in a statement: "The Ministry of Health confirmed late on Wednesday night that one of the passengers on TK54 which had arrived in Singapore from Turkey on March 3... was tested positive for the Covid-19."
MOH has started contact tracing for passengers who may have had contact with the affected passenger while he or she was infectious.
The Transport Ministry, together with the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore and Changi Airport Group, are in contact with and assisting the airline and passengers, the statement said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also in contact with the Turkish Embassy on this matter.
The latest case is not among the two confirmed cases reported by the Health Ministry last evening.
The coronavirus outbreak has had a significant impact on the aviation industry.
In a statement yesterday, the International Air Transport Association (Iata) reported that while global demand for air travel in January climbed 2.4 per cent compared with a year ago, it was down from the 4.6 per cent year-over-year growth for the month before that.
It is also the lowest monthly increase since April 2010, at the time of the volcanic ash cloud crisis in Europe that led to massive airspace closures and flight cancellations.
Iata's director-general and chief executive Alexandre de Juniac said: "January was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the traffic impacts we are seeing owing to the Covid-19 outbreak, given that major travel restrictions in China did not begin until Jan 23.
"Nevertheless, it was still enough to cause our slowest traffic growth in nearly a decade," he said.
