As the deadly Wuhan coronavirus continues to spread, more airlines have cancelled or reduced the amount of flights to China. The rationale behind this decision is based on the decrease in demand and also to prevent the disease from spreading further.
The list of the 16 airlines are:
1. British Airways: suspended all flights to mainland China until March
2. Air Canada: reducing the number of flights to Beijing and Shanghai
3. American Airlines: suspended services from LA to Shanghai and Beijing, flights from Dallas still in operation
4. Austrian Airlines: suspending flights to mainland China from Vienna until mid-February
5. Finnair: Cancelled flights to Nanjing and reduced the number of flights to Beijing
6. Cathay Pacific: will keep flying to mainland China but is reducing the capacity of passengers to half
7. Lufthansa: all flights to China are cancelled until the end of February
8. United Airlines: flights to China from 24 cities across the country are cancelled
9. Swiss International Airlines: all flights to China from Zurich are cancelled until end of February
10. Air Seoul: suspended all flights to mainland China, including Zhangjiajie, Linyi and Wuhan
11. Asiana Airlines: suspending flights from Saturday 1 February to Guilin, Changsha, and Haikou
12. Air India: cancelled all flights until mid-February
13. Jetstar Asia: cancelling all flights from mainland China, including Hefei, Guiyang, and Xuzhou until the end of March
14. Lion Air: suspending all flights to China
15. Air Tanzania: cancelled flights from Dar es Salaam to China
16. IndoGo: cancelling flights to Chengdu and Hong Kong from Saturday 1 February but will keep service to Guangzhou
According to the BBC as of 29 January, the death toll has risen to 170, ‘and a confirmed case in Tibet means it has reached every region in mainland China’.
Chinese has confirmed 7,711 cases of coronavirus within its borders as of 29 January.
The World Health Organization (WHO) will meet on Thursday 30 January to decide whether the virus can be classified as a global health emergency.
‘In the last few days the progress of the virus, especially in some countries, especially human-to-human transmission, worries us, said’ WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday.
The virus has been indentified in 15 countires other than China so far.
Image: Unsplash
