Asia jet fuel demand slumps as airlines cancel flights after virus outbreak

Asian jet fuel demand is taking a beating from an outbreak of a flu-like virus in China that has led airlines to cancel scores of flights during the peak Lunar New Year travel season. Jet fuel prices have dropped and refiners' profits for the product have slumped to the lowest in more than 2-1/2 years, while industry analysts are cutting their 2020 forecasts for jet fuel and overall oil demand. Airlines and passengers are on guard against the respiratory coronavirus which has so far spread to over a dozen countries. During the 2002-2003 outbreak of SARS - also caused by a coronavirus that originated in China and which killed nearly 800 people globally - air passenger demand in Asia plunged 45%. And now, the travel industry is more reliant on Chinese travellers, and China's share of the global economy has quadrupled. <br/>