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Norwegian Air will lay off staff and cut around 3,000 flights as the spread of the new coronavirus outbreak sends shockwaves across the travel industry. “The company has also put several other measures in place, including temporary layoffs of a significant share of its workforce,” the budget carrier said Tuesday. It said the 3,000 flights to be cut between mid-March and mid-June correspond to around 15% of its capacity. Norwegian earlier announced it had temporarily halted all flights to and from Italy because of the coronavirus outbreak. The whole of Italy has been placed under lockdown until next month in an attempt to beat the spread of the virus, the government announced on Monday. “This is a critical time for the aviation industry, including us at Norwegian,” CEO Jacob Schram said. “We encourage the authorities to immediately implement measures to imminently reduce the financial burden on airlines in order to protect crucial infrastructure and jobs.” The cancellations add to an already difficult financial situation at Norwegian, which last week scrapped its 2020 outlook and has lost 70% of its market value this year.<br/>

Brazil’s third-largest carrier Azul Linhas Aereas Brasileiras will reduce the number of its flights to Portugal and to Florida due to the risks of the coronavirus outbreak, its CE John Rodgerson said Tuesday. Rodgerson said the airline’s operations within Brazil are “under control” but that it could cut some domestic flights in the second quarter due to seasonal factors.<br/>