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By Sarah Young and Allison Lampert
LONDON/MONTREAL, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Global airlines on
Wednesday continued to suspend or scale back direct flights to
China's major cities amid an increase in travel warnings and
decline in demand from passengers due to the coronavirus.
Fears over the spread of the flu-like virus, which
originated in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, are increasing
as the death toll rose to 133.
The virus appears to represent the biggest epidemic threat
to the airline industry since the SARS outbreak, which at its
peak in April 2003 led to a 45% plunge in passenger demand in
Asia, analysts said.
British Airways said it suspended all direct
flights to and from mainland China.
BA.com, the airline's website, shows no direct flights to
mainland China available to book in January or February. But the
airline said in an email that the cancellations were in effect
until Jan. 31 while it assesses the situation.
Air Canada, which planned earlier this week to
cancel just a select number of its 33 weekly flights to China,
said on Wednesday it would suspend all direct flights to Beijing
and Shanghai.
The suspension, from Jan. 30 to Feb. 29, came after the
government of Canada updated its travel advisory urging its
citizens to avoid non-essential travel to China.
American Airlines Group Inc said on Wednesday it
would suspend flights from Los Angeles to Beijing and Shanghai
but continue flying from Dallas, and Delta Air Lines
said it was halving its U.S.-China schedule to about 21 weekly
flights.
U.S. officials said the White House had decided against
suspending all flights to China for now, but it could revisit
the decision if events warrant.
Among European carriers, Germany’s Lufthansa
suspended its own, Swiss and Austrian Airlines flights to and
from China until Feb. 9, while Air France said it
would reduce its flight schedule to Beijing and Shanghai this
week.
Iberia, part of the IAG group along with BA, said it was
temporarily suspending all flights to Shanghai.
Asia-Pacific accounts for about 19% of both Air France-KLM
and Lufthansa's available seat kilometers and 8% of IAG's in
2019, Goodbody analysts said.
Indonesia’s Lion Air said on Wednesday it would suspend all
direct flights to China. India’s IndiGo is also suspending
flights to Chengdu and Hong Kong.
Carriers including Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways said
on Wednesday that amenities such as hot towels, blankets and
magazines would not be offered on flights to and from mainland
China from Thursday until further notice.
Cathay Pacific and other airlines are allowing their flight
attendants to wear face masks and gloves on flights to protect
against fears of contagion.
Wesley Lesosky, president of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees unit that represents Air Canada flight attendants,
said by email that members have the option of wearing masks and
gloves on flights to China.
But flight attendants remained "concerned with the effects
the virus could have if contracted, how to recognize an infected
passenger and how to deal with the nervous passengers onboard,"
Lesosky said.
(Reporting by Sarah Young, additional reporting by Jessica
Jones in Madrid, Allison Lampert in Montreal, Tracy Rucinski in
Chicago, Jamie Freed in Sydney, David Shepardson in Washington
and Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; editing by Kate Holton,
Nick Macfie, Jonathan Oatis and Dan Grebler)
