Air Canada suspends all direct flights to China for a month in wake of coronavirus outbreak

Air Canada is halting all direct flights to China following the federal govt’s advisory to avoid non-essential travel to the mainland due to the coronavirus epidemic. The suspension is effective Thursday and slated to last until Feb 29, Air Canada said. The airline runs 33 flights a week to Beijing and Shanghai. Earlier this week it began to cancel select flights as customers delayed trips and called off travel plans due to fears of the spreading epidemic. The carrier is also waiving rebooking fees for flights that go through a partner airline to the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, until late March. Air Canada has seen its shares fall by about 10% since authorities confirmed Jan 20 the human-to-human transmission of the illness. <br/>