Flight bans cripple Australia travel and tourism industry

Australia’s travel, tourism and education industries are facing crippling losses linked to the spread of the coronavirus and the extension of travel bans to the most severely affected countries, particularly China.  Two of Australia’s biggest travel agencies, Helloworld Travel and Webjet, scrapped earnings guidance on Wednesday and unveiled cost-cutting measures, after new data from Sydney Airport showed a collapse in passenger traffic worse than that experienced after the September 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 or the Sars outbreak in 2002-2003.  International traffic fell 16.8% in February and by a quarter during the first nine days of March, according to Sydney Airport, Australia’s busiest.  Chinese passenger traffic — the largest category of international visitors to Australia — fell by 72% in February following a travel ban on non-residents travelling through from mainland China implemented on February 13. “Everyone in the aviation and tourism industry is hurting and we are in discussions with all of our partners about the best way to support each other,” said Geoff Culbert, Sydney Airport CE. Qantas and Virgin Australia have already scrapped their earnings guidance and implemented drastic cost cuts, including reducing flight capacity by up to a quarter on international routes. <br/>