Coronavirus Outbreak Forces Airlines To Cut Back On Summer Flights
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — With the coronavirus outbreak continuing to spread in the U.S. and across the globe, airlines are cutting back on its international and domestic flights beyond the spring.
Delta Airlines said it would reduce its international flights by 20 to 25 percent, and its domestic service by 10 to 15 percent.
"As the virus has spread, we have seen a decline in demand across all entities, and we are taking decisive action to also protect Delta's financial position," CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement. "As a result, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision to immediately reduce capacity and are implementing cost reductions and cash flow initiatives across the organization."
American Airlines announced Tuesday it would reduce its international capacity for summer by 10 percent, including a 55 percent reduction in trans-Pacific flights. Domestic flights in April will also be trimmed by 7.5 percent.
American says it will suspend service from Los Angeles and Dallas-Fort Worth to mainland China and Hong Kong through the summer, and extend the suspension of service to Seoul, South Korea from DFW into early May. Service to Rome from Philadelphia will be suspended effective immediately through the end of April and the suspension of service from Chicago and Charlotte to Milan and Rome extended through early summer. Seasonal flights to Barcelona and Venice will resume in early June, but flights to Rome from New York and DFW will be delayed through the end of April. The airline also said it would reduce service to Paris and Madrid in May and June. Flights to Santiago, Chile from DFW will also be suspended through April and American's service from Montevideo, Uruguay from Miami would become seasonal.
Qantas announced it would lose about a quarter of its flights for the next six months.