IATA data shows that passenger traffic growth slowed to 2.4% in January – the weakest monthly increase since April 2010, and a sharp decrease from December 2019’s 4.6% rise in revenue passenger-kilometres. “January was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of the traffic impacts we are seeing owing to the Covid-19 outbreak, given that major travel restrictions in China did not begin until 23 January,” warns IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac. “Nevertheless, it was still enough to cause our slowest traffic growth in nearly a decade.” Worst-hit among the regions were Latin America and Asia-Pacific, which each saw RPKs grow just 0.4% in January. Europe showed growth by 1.6%, while the figures for Africa, the Middle East and North America were in the 5-6% range. Capacity as measured by available seat-kilometres was raised 1.7%. Load factor edged up 0.6 percentage points to 80.3%. <br/>
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US President Donald Trump met Wednesday with executives from some of the nation’s top airlines who said they have stepped up procedures to keep planes “clean and disinfected” amid concerns about the coronavirus. Executives from Southwest, United, American Airlines and JetBlue, among others, attended the meeting at the White House with Trump, VP Mike Pence and other top US officials. “It’s affecting the airline business, as it would. And a lot of people are staying in our country and they’re shopping and using our hotels in this country, so from that standpoint I think probably there’s a positive impact, but there’s also an impact on overseas travel which will be fairly substantial,” Trump said. He said the executives had not asked for financial assistance to make up for the hit to their businesses. The airline executives said the industry was taking measures to intensify aircraft sanitation. “We’ve stepped up our efforts to make sure the airplanes are clean and disinfected,” said Southwest CE Gary Kelly.<br/>
The head of the US Chamber of Commerce said Wednesday that the government will not need to bail out US airlines in the wake of sagging travel demand due to concerns over the coronavirus. “We don’t need any bailouts here,” US Chamber ChE Tom Donohue said. “Bottom line is we’re going to run just like business as usual - with a little higher heartbeat and get it done.” Hours later United Airlines said it would slash 20% of international flights and 10% of US flights in April as it launched a hiring freeze, voluntary unpaid leaves and delayed salary increases for executives. It plans similar flight cuts for May. President Donald Trump said at a meeting with airline executives later on Wednesday that they had not sought any financial assistance. “We haven’t discussed that,” Trump said. Roger Dow, who heads the US Travel Association, said that he considers a bailout unnecessary, but suggested the government could take steps to boost demand for travel. Travel industry officials said the government could reinstate some tax incentives to encourage business travel and spend additional funds to promote US travel destinations.<br/>
Airbus is considering a cut in production of its A330neo jet after the biggest customer for the wide-body said a coronavirus-driven slump in travel had forced it to defer deliveries, according to people familiar with the matter. The European planemaker is reviewing its production plans and may make a decision as soon as this month, the people said, asking not to be identified because the deliberations are private. In a filing last month, AirAsia X, which represents about one-fourth of outstanding orders for the model, said it would postpone deliveries of its new A330neos. The prospect of a reduction, coming on the heels of a recent cutback in A330 annual output to 40 jets, illustrates just how quickly the damage from the travel slowdown is rippling through the aerospace industry. The epicentre is in China, where flights have fallen by as much as 80% and forced a government takeover of HNA Group. An Airbus spokesman declined to comment on its plans. Chief Executive Officer Guillaume Faury told French senators Wednesday that Airbus expects an “even tougher” year on long-haul routes.<br/>