India’s flag carrier airline, Air India on Thursday has announced that the airline is going to suspends all its flights to china till June 30 due to the outbreak of deadly Coronavirus (COVID-19).
The extended suspension of flights to China will impact its Delhi-Shanghai and Delhi- Hong Kong services till June 30.
Earlier, the airline has suspended its flights to Shanghai from January 31 to February 14 and to Hong Kong from February 7 until March 28.
Most of the international airlines have either reduced or suspended their operations to China.
According to the IATA (International Air Transport Association), The COVID-19 (Coronavirus) is predicted to cause a 13 percent full-year loss of passenger demand for carriers within the Asia-Pacific region.
Considering that growth for the region’s airlines was forecast to be 4.8 percent, the net impact is going to be an 8.2 percent full-year contraction compared to 2019 demand levels, the IATA said.
“In this scenario, that might translate into a $27.8 billion revenue loss in 2020 for carriers in the Asia-Pacific region – the majority of which might be borne by carriers registered in China, with $12.8 billion loss within the China domestic market alone,” IATA said in a statement.
“In the same scenario, carriers outside Asia-Pacific are forecast in touch a revenue loss of $1.5 billion, assuming the loss of demand is restricted to markets linked to China.”
Consequently, the entire global lost revenue will come to $29.3 billion and represent a 4.7 percent hit to global demand.
The new virus, which is of a similar genre as SARS of 2003, was first reported in WHO Disease outbreak news on January 5 in China”s Wuhan. Till now it’s progressively spread across many countries.
However, the new virus has spread at a way faster pace than the 2003 SARS epidemic.A
In a bid to curb the spread of the virus, Chinese authorities have closed transportation services across many parts of the country, including Wuhan.
To get travel updates directly on your mobile, save and send a message at 9461777617 on Whatsapp to start.
Also Read, Coronavirus: Singapore Airlines to cut network-wide flights
