LONDON (BLOOMBERG) - British Airways on Thursday (Jan 30) took the most dramatic step yet among global carriers in response to the deadly coronavirus outbreak, saying it will halt flights to China for a month.
The UK operator will cease services linking London with Beijing and Shanghai up to and including Feb 29, it said in a statement, adding that the move follows Foreign Office advice against "all but essential travel".
While a host of international airlines have been suspending or paring back operations to China, BA's action goes further and indicates the heightening levels of concern as the virus death toll rises above 170 and confirmed cases in the Asian nation soar past 7,700.
BA's Spanish sister company, Iberia, also part of the IAG SA group, has likewise suspended flights to Shanghai through February. Like Beijing, the city is hundreds of kilometres from the focus on the viral outbreak around Wuhan in the central Hubei province.
The World Health Organisation also plans to provide an update later on Thursday on whether it regards the outbreak as a "public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC)".
A so-called PHEIC gives the WHO the authority to recommend travel advisories for cities, regions and countries, which might have implications for those airlines still providing significant links to China.
Gulf operators Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways provide vital links to China via their vast transfer hubs, with 160 flights a week there, including Hong Kong, and have so far kept their schedules intact.
Emirates, the world's largest long-haul airline, gets a third of its revenue from East Asia, including Australasia, and has been looking to add many more Chinese destinations to tap "extraordinary" growth in demand, president Tim Clark said last year.
Among other major carriers, Deutsche Lufthansa is suspending services to China until Feb 9, as is Scandinavian operator SAS, which will also freeze ticket sales until Feb 29.
Air France announced on Thursday it will suspend all its scheduled flights to and from mainland China until Feb 9. Air France previously suspended its flights to and from the Chinese town of Wuhan on Jan 22, and the suspension remains in effect until further notice.
Almost 11 per cent of flights scheduled to or from China were scrapped between Jan 23 and Jan 28, according to research from Cirium, which analyses air travel.
Other carriers adjusting their schedules include:
- Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways said it would cut capacity to China by 50 per cent or more through March.
- Delta Air Lines: Cutting services to China by half to 21 flights a week, from Feb 6 through April 30.
- American Airlines Group: Suspending flights between Los Angeles and Shanghai and Beijing from Feb 9 through March 27.
- United Airlines Holdings: Reducing service to Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
- KLM: Air France's Dutch sister unit is suspending direct flights to Chengdu and Hangzhou as of Thursday, reducing the number of weekly flights to Shanghai to seven from 11 times a week, and halting direct flights to Xiamen as of Jan 30.
- Air Canada: Suspending flights to Beijing and Shanghai from Jan 30 until Feb 29.
- ANA Holdings: Flights to Japan from China have been halved. "We don't know how long or severe this will be," executive vice-president Ichiro Fukuzawa said at an earnings news conference.
- Korean Air Lines: Suspending flights to Wuhan through March 27. From Feb 2 to 22, it will also halt flights on seven routes, including Incheon-Huangshan and Busan-Beijing, and reduce services on five, including Incheon-Beijing and Busan-Shanghai.
