An updated, alphabetical list of airlines suspending flights to China in the wake of the new coronavirus outbreak. <br/>
general
More than 25,000 flights to, from and within China will be canceled this week as more than two dozen airlines suspend services to the country because of the coronavirus outbreak, leading to an unprecedented shakeup in the world’s second-largest aviation market. International capacity will fall by 4.4m seats a week, with Lion Air, Deutsche Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines cutting flights to China, resulting in the “most dramatic change in schedule” in such a short time, according to OAG Aviation Worldwide. The loss in seats in the international market is equivalent to the entire Indian market, OAG said Monday. The cancellation comes as data showed the number of trips made in China over the Lunar New Year break plunged 73% to about 190m compared to the holiday last year as people refrained from travel because of the outbreak, according to China’s Ministry of Transport. The number of people who went by train dropped 67% to 31m, air travel passengers slid 57% to 8m, while road and water transport both fell more than 70% to 150m and 3m, respectively. “The likelihood is that we will see further changes in the next week in response to both the virus but also demand which has naturally been impacted with consumer confidence badly damaged,” OAG said. “One virus has essentially resulted in the amount of capacity equivalent to the whole of the Indian market being wiped out is something we hopefully will not see again for a very long time.”<br/>
The US CDC Monday announced a second case of transmission of the new coronavirus within the US and provided more detailed plans on how it will handle travellers returning from China as the country works to limit the outbreak. “We expect to see more cases of person-to-person spread,” Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Centre for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during a conference call that included confirmation of a handful of new cases, bringing the US total to 11. The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is making nearly $250m in emergency funds available to cover the cost of the response, an agency spokesman said on Monday. Some of that may be used to support screening and monitoring returning US citizens from China who are exempt from the presidential proclamation issued on Friday suspending entry of foreign nationals who had visited China within the past 14 days. The CDC outlined enhanced screening plans for family members of US citizens and legal permanent residents returning from China, who may face a 14-day quarantine if they had been in Wuhan or the Hubei province of China, the epicentre of the epidemic. Passengers arriving in the United States on commercial airlines will be directed to one of 11 US airports for additional health assessments. If they show virus symptoms such as fever, US citizens and those who are exempt will be transferred for medical evaluation, and will not be allowed to complete their travel plans.<br/>
The outbreak and spread of a deadly new coronavirus has disrupted 65 percent of South Korean airlines' flight services to China, industry sources said Tuesday. As of Monday, industry leader Korean Air Lines and seven other carriers have temporarily suspended 41 out of their 100 routes to the neighboring country due to the coronavirus scare. The airlines have also decided to reduce flights on 24 routes to Chinese cities, including the capital Beijing. Korean Air, the country's national flag carrier, recently decided to suspend eight out of its 31 Chinese routes, while cutting flights on 14 routes. Asiana Airlines has suspended four routes and cut flights on eight routes. Three South Korean low-cost carriers ― Air Seoul, Eastar Jet and Jin Air ― have suspended a combined 11 routes to China. Another budget carrier, Air Busan, has decided to suspend seven out of its nine routes to China, while reducing flights on one route. Jeju Air has suspended all seven routes to China temporarily, with T'way halting five out of six routes.<br/>
The United Arab Emirates is the latest country to announce suspension of flights to and from China — with the exception of the capital Beijing — in an effort to contain the new coronavirus, its state-run WAM news agency announced Monday. The suspension will come into effect on Wednesday, the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) said. “We continue to put our confidence in the Chinese government’s efforts to control and contain the situation,” the GCAA said, adding that all passengers travelling from Beijing International Airport will undergo a six to eight hour comprehensive medical screening at the airport before boarding.<br/>
Alarmed by the growing risks of a new coronavirus, Brazil has decided to repatriate Brazilians from Wuhan, China, and will declare a national health emergency, Health Minister Luiz Henrique Mandetta said Monday. A chartered plane would be sent to pick up 40 of the 55 Brazilians in Wuhan who have asked to be evacuated from the city at the center of a coronavirus outbreak, Mandetta said. They would be quarantined for 18 days at a military base, he said. President Jair Bolsonaro said last week that repatriating Brazilians from Wuhan would not be “opportune” as it could put the population back home at risk. But he changed his mind over the weekend when Brazilians in Wuhan posted a video appealing to Bolsonaro to get them out. In their six-minute video, the Brazilians noted that other nations where preparing to evacuate their citizens with the help of Chinese authorities, and they pleaded with Bolsonaro and Foreign Minister Ernesto Araujo to rescue them. On Sunday, Bolsonaro said his government will evacuate every Brazilian from Wuhan who wants to return home. He is expected to issue a decree by Tuesday to authorize the quarantine steps and speed up the repatriation of Brazilians. A ministry spokesman said Brazil is in talks with the Chinese government to obtain authorization for a plane to land in Wuhan, which has been under lockdown since Jan. 23. <br/>
Fallout from the Airbus bribery scandal reverberated around the world on Monday as the head of one of its top buyers temporarily stood down and investigations were launched in countries aggrieved at being dragged into the increasingly political row. Airbus agreed on Friday to pay a record $4b in fines after reaching a plea bargain with prosecutors in Britain, France and US over alleged bribery and corruption stretching back at least 15 years. Now, it is bracing for a rocky period with airlines and foreign governments, some of which have complained they were not forewarned about the charges and claimed little knowledge of the sums of money swirling around their fleet purchases. “Friday was the end of Act I, now we are seeing the beginning of Act II with possible repercussions on airline relationships,” said a person close to the company. Airbus declined to comment further after welcoming the agreement on Friday as an opportunity to “turn the page”. Prosecution documents agreed by Airbus detailed a global network of agents or middlemen in transactions across the group’s business and run from a cell in Paris where the group had part of its headquarters, split between France and Germany. Outlines of the operation and its annual budget of E250m-300m had been reported by Reuters. Prosecutors also cited parallel projects or investments alongside some negotiations, including the sponsorship by Airbus’ then-parent EADS of a Formula 1 team owned by top officials at AirAsia, a major customer. In Ghana, a political storm erupted over accusations of Airbus payments to a relative of a government official in connection with the purchase of military transport planes. In Colombia, airline Avianca said it had hired a law firm to investigate its relationship with Airbus and determine if it had been a victim of wrongdoing. Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa ordered a full investigation after Britain’s SFO reported that Airbus had hired the wife of a SriLankan Airlines executive as its intermediary in connection with aircraft negotiations.<br/>
The UK aviation industry has pledged to cut its net carbon emissions to zero by 2050 – despite still planning for 70% more flights over the next three decades. Members of the Sustainable Aviation coalition, which includes most major airlines and airports, as well as aerospace manufacturers, will sign a commitment to reach net zero by mid-century. More than a third of the proposed net reduction will be achieved through offsetting. A “decarbonisation road map” will be published outlining how aviation can cut its carbon footprint – replacing a previous road map that only committed the industry to halving emissions over the next three decades. The plan sets out potential reductions coming from smarter flight operations, and new aircraft and engine technology – including some yet to be invented. Modernising airspace and developing sustainable aviation fuels will also contribute to reducing pollution. About 25.8m tonnes of CO2, out of 71.1m tonnes set to be created annually by the UK sector, will need to be addressed through what Sustainable Aviation calls “market-based measures”, or offsetting. The coalition forecasts that sustainable jet fuels, which are yet to be employed commercially, could meet almost a third of UK’s aviation fuel demand by 2050. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, described the commitment as a huge step forward in creating a greener future. He added: “Aviation has a crucial role to play in reducing carbon emissions, and with the help of new technologies, renewable fuels and our continued international cooperation … we’ll be able to strike that balance.”<br/>