British Airways is temporarily suspending all mainland Chinese services in the wake of govt advice to avoid all but essential travel to the area. It operates services from London Heathrow to Beijing Daxing and Shanghai airports, using Boeing 777s and 787s. “We have suspended all flights to and from mainland China with immediate effect following advice from the Foreign Office against all but essential travel,” the airline says. The airline subsequently clarified that the suspension will remain in place until Jan 31 while it assesses the situation. The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office had already recommended not to travel to Hubei province as a result of the coronavirus outbreak. But it has extended this warning to the rest of mainland China, excluding the areas of Hong Kong and Macao. <br/>
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American Airlines Group said Wednesday it would suspend flights from Los Angeles to Beijing and Shanghai, as demand has sagged amid a coronavirus outbreak in China that has prompted other airlines to also cancel flights. The US and Japan evacuated their nationals from a quarantined Chinese city Wednesday and British Airways suspended flights to China, where deaths from the virus have leapt to 133. American said its flight suspension would run from Feb 9 through Mar 27. The carrier, which normally operates 4 US flights a day to China, will continue flying to Beijing and Shanghai from Dallas. China's economic growth had helped power a global aviation boom over the last decade, but as the country curtails travel with the spread of the flu-like virus, a slowdown could hit the industry harder than ever before. <br/>
Hundreds of American Airlines pilots rallied at DFW International Wednesday in their first public demonstration against the carrier after a year of negotiations that failed to yield a new contract. Leaders of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents about 14,000 pilots at the airline, say company negotiators have moved too slowly, even though both sides had a soft deadline to reach a deal by the beginning of 2020, when the old contract was amendable. In their first contract negotiation in 5 years, pilots are using American’s high delay and cancellation rate from 2019 to put public pressure on the airline, along with financial results and profit-sharing programs that lag competitors at Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines. <br/>
Qantas CE Alan Joyce says it is too early to tell how many millions of dollars Qantas will lose in the wake of the deadly coronavirus outbreak. Joyce said he would use the effect of the SARS pandemic as a benchmark. “It impacted us by A$55m back in 2003 and lasted around 6 to 8 months,” Joyce said. “This is different in a number of different ways, and who knows how it is going to expand.” Investment bank UBS noted that during the SARS pandemic, during which Qantas international traffic fell 11% and domestic load factors dropped 4%, the airline placed a freeze on discretionary expenses, incentivised staff to take leave and cut its capital expenditure. Joyce said a drop in fuel prices would help to soften the blow to the bottom line, as shares fell by about 5.3% Monday. <br/>
The next generation of pilots who will fly Qantas planes on non-stop services from Brisbane to London and New York will earn their wings in regional Queensland. Qantas' new pilot academy at Toowoomba was opened by premier Annastacia Palaszczuk Wednesday, and will train up to 250 pilots each year amid a global shortage of aviators. Qantas CE Alan Joyce said more than 800,000 new pilots would be needed around the world during the next 20 years, one-third of them in the Asia-Pacific. He said some of Qantas' future captains of its 787 Dreamliner and A380 jets would be graduates of the academy. The trainees, who already have their basic pilot's licences, will study 5 days a week for a year to gain their commercial licence. <br/>