New Delhi: Aircraft carriers in India and elsewhere have decided to suspend services from areas adversely affected by the coronavirus outbreak.
Air India
National carrier Air India has announced temporary suspension of its flight services to Rome, Milan and Seoul.
While services to Rome (Italy) are being discontinued from March 15 to March 25, flight operations to Milan (Italy) and Seoul in South Korea will remain suspended between March 14 and March 28, an airline official said.
The decision came following the government suspending all visas, except a few categories such as diplomatic and employment, till April 15 to prevent the spread of coronavirus on Wednesday.
Passengers of an Air India flight from Milan to New Delhi, which landed at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport on Wednesday, were screened as part of the ongoing preventive measure.
"The operating crew of the flight has self-quarantined for 14 days," an Air India official said.
Air India has also cancelled its flights to Shanghai and Hong Kong till June 30. An Air India spokesperson said the airline has reduced frequency of its flights on Delhi-Singapore route to five days from seven days.
Further, the airline is now operating flights on four days on Mumbai-Chennai-Singapore route while it was daily earlier.
Lufthansa
German airline Lufthansa said on March 11 it would cancel 23,000 flights across the group, a 50-percent reduction, as it tries to deal with the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.
Up to now, Lufthansa had detailed 7,100 cancellations up to the end of its winter flight plan on March 28.
Lufthansa's subsidiary Brussels Airlines issued a statement saying it was halting all flights to and from Italy from Thursday to April 3 "due to the announcement made by the Italian government to implement further quarantine restrictions".
Kuwait
Kuwait will suspend all commercial flights leaving from and arriving at Kuwait City International Airport "from March 13 until further notice" to forestall the spread of coronavirus, state media reported on March 11.
The country would also "forbid" its residents meeting in "restaurants, cafes and commercial centres", the Kuwait News Agency said.
Saudi, Malaysia flights from Kochi cancelled
The coronavirus outbreak has led to the cancellation of flight services from Cochin International Airport to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. Services of Saudi Airlines to Jeddah and Malindo Air have been suspended till the second week of March.
However, both airlines have denied that the cancellation of services is on account of the coronavirus spread.
Services of Saudi Airline's SV 784 have been cancelled on the following dates- March 4, 8, 9, 10 and 13.
Malindo Air flights from Kochi to Kuala Lumpur will also not operate on March 2, 4, 9, 10 and 14.
Currently, there are no day time services from the Cochin Airport owing to the runway re-carpeting work here. All flight services operate between 6pm and 10am. Twenty-four-hour services will restart at the airport from March 28.
Vistara
Vistara had announced last week that it will cancel 54 international flights next month, including on routes connecting Delhi with Bangkok and Singapore, amid weak demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.
In a statement, the airline said it has made temporary adjustments to selected services to/from Bangkok and Singapore for March.
"20 flights between Delhi and Bangkok, 26 flights between Mumbai and Singapore and 8 flights between Delhi and Singapore will be cancelled in March 2020," it said.
The airline said the adjustments have been made to the services in response to weak demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.
"Vistara will continue to monitor the situation and progressively evaluate the need for any further adjustments to its schedule to meet changing demand patterns," it noted.
With respect to the cancelled flights, customers can opt for a full refund or alternative travel dates free of cost.
Such customers would not have to pay any cancellation or re-issuance fee.
A joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, Vistara operates more than 200 flights daily.
Go Air
GoAir has scaled down the number of flights operated to Phuket and Bangkok. These flights are being operated from Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
Here is the list of the cancelled flights across the world:
Airlines that have cancelled all flights to Mainland China
- American Airlines - Extends suspension of China and Hong Kong flights through April 24
- Air France - Said on Feb 6 it would suspend flights to and from mainland China for much of March
- Air Seoul - The South Korean budget carrier suspended China flights from Jan 28 until further notice.
- Air Tanzania - Tanzania's state-owned carrier, which had planned to begin charter flights to China in February, postponed its maiden flights.
- Air Mauritius - Suspended all flights to China and Hong Kong
- Austrian Airlines - until end-February.
- British Airways - Jan. 29-March 31.
- Delta Airlines - Feb. 2-April 30
- Egyptair suspended flights on Feb, 1, but on Feb. 20 said it would resume some flights to and from China starting next week.
- El Al Israel Airlines - Said on Feb. 12 it would suspend its Hong Kong flights until March 20 and reduce its daily flights to Bangkok. It suspended flights to Beijing from Jan. 30 to March 25 following a health ministry directive.
- Iberia Airlines - The Spanish carrier extended its suspension of flights from Madrid to Shanghai, its only route, from Feb. 29 until the end of April.
- JejuAir Co Ltd - Korean airline to suspend all China routes starting March 1
- Kenya Airways - Jan. 31 until further notice.
- KLM - Will extend its ban up to March 28
- LOT - Extends flight suspension until March 28
- Oman and Saudia, Saudi Arabia's state airline, both suspended flights on Feb. 2 until further notice.
- Qatar Airways - Feb. 1 until further notice.
- Rwandair - Jan. 31 until further notice.
- Scoot, Singapore Airlines' low-cost carrier - Feb. 8 until further notice.
- United Airlines - Feb. 5-April 23. Service to Hong Kong suspended Feb. 8-April 23.
- Vietjet and Vietnam Airlines - Suspended flights to the mainland as well as Hong Kong and Macau Feb. 1-April 30, in line with its aviation authority's directive.
Airlines that have cancelled some China flights/routes or modified service
- Air Canada - Extended the suspension of its flights to Beijing and Shanghai until March 27. It also suspended its Toronto to Hong Kong flights from March 1 to March 27, but its Vancouver to Hong Kong route remains active.
- Air China - Said on Feb. 12 it will cancel flights to Athens, Greece, from Feb. 17 to March 18
- Air China - State carrier said on Feb. 9 it will "adjust" flights between China and the United States.
- Air New Zealand - Suspended Auckland-Shanghai service Feb. 9-March 29. Reduced capacity on Shanghai route throughout April and Hong Kong route throughout April and May.
- ANA Holdings - Suspended routes including Shanghai and Hong Kong from Feb. 10 until further notice.
- Cathay Pacific Airways - Plans to cut a third of its capacity over the next two months, including 90% of flights to mainland China. It has encouraged its 27,000 employees to take three weeks of unpaid leave in a bid to preserve cash.
- Emirates and Etihad - The United Arab Emirates, a major international transit hub, suspended flights to and from China, except for Beijing.
- Finnair - Cancelled all flights to mainland China and decreased the number of flights to Hong Kong until March 28.
- Hainan Airlines - Suspended flights between Budapest, Hungary, and Chongqing Feb. 7-March 27.
- Korean Air Lines Co. - The national flag carrier suspended eight routes to China and reduced services on nine Chinese routes between Feb. 7 and 22.
- Philippine Airlines - Cut the number of flights between Manila and China by over half.
- Qantas Airways - Suspended direct flights to China from Feb. 1. The Australian national carrier halted flights from Sydney to Beijing and Sydney to Shanghai between Feb. 9-March 29.
- Royal Air Maroc - The Moroccan airline suspended direct flights to China Jan. 31-Feb. 29. On Jan. 16, it had launched a direct air route with three flights weekly between its Casablanca hub and Beijing.
- Russia - All Russian airlines, with the exception of national airline Aeroflot, stopped flying to China from Jan. 31. Small airline Ikar will also continue flights between Moscow and China. All planes arriving from China will be sent to a separate terminal in the Moscow Sheremetyevo airport. Aeroflot reduced the frequency of flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou until Feb. 29.
- Nordic airline SAS - Extended its suspension of flights to Shanghai and Beijing until March 29.
- Singapore Airlines - Suspended or cut capacity on flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Xiamen and Chongqing, some of which are flown by regional arm SilkAir.
- UPS - Cancelled 22 flights to China because of the virus and normal manufacturing closures due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
- Virgin Atlantic - Extended its suspension of daily operations to Shanghai until March 28.
- Virgin Australia - Said it will withdraw from the Sydney-Hong Kong route from March 2 because it was "no longer a viable commercial route" due to growing concerns over the virus and civil unrest in Hong Kong.
Over 2,700 people have died due to novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19), while the number of those infected is around 80,000.
(With inputs from PTI and Reuters.)
