Airlines cut back as coronavirus bites into traffic

As new developments and official travel advisories relating to coronavirus made headlines at the weekend, Qantas International has followed other airlines and cut capacity, slashing 16% of its Asia capacity until at least the end of May, impacting flights from Australia to mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Venice yesterday (Sunday 23 February 2020) halted and cut short its famous annual carnival, as coronavirus advanced into Italy, killing two Italians.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) yesterday increased the severity of its travel advisories for both Japan and South Korea, boosting the level to “exercise a high degree of caution”. The heightened alerts are “due to the heightened risk of sustained local transmission of coronavirus (COVID-19)”, DFAT said.

Public fear of contagion is impacting flight and cruise bookings.

US officials say the situation is being made worse by thousands of Russian-linked social media accounts, which have allegedly launched a coordinated effort to spread alarm about the disease outbreak.

The Russian outlets promote unfounded conspiracy theories suggesting that the US is behind the new virus, US State Department officials told news agency AFP. The rumours are disrupting global efforts to fight the epidemic, the officials say.

QANTAS CUTS BACK ASIA FLIGHTS

Qantas International will cut 16% of Asia capacity until at least the end of May, impacting flights from Australia to mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

• Sydney-Shanghai (the airline’s sole route to mainland China) – will remain suspended
• Sydney-Hong Kong – reduced from 14 return flights per week to 7
• Brisbane-Hong Kong – reduced from 7 return flights per week to 4
• Melbourne-Hong Kong – reduced from 7 return flights per week to 5
• Melbourne-Singapore – flights to be operated by Boeing 787s instead of larger Airbus 380s (approx. 250 less seats per flight)

JETSTAR GROUP

Jetstar Group will cut its capacity to Asia by 14 per cent until at least the end of May, impacting flights from Australia to Japan and Thailand, and intra-Asia flights.

• Cairns-Tokyo (Narita), Cairns-Osaka, Gold Coast-Tokyo (Narita) and Melbourne & Sydney-Phuket will each be reduced by up to two return flights per week.
• Each of the Jetstar airlines in Asia – Jetstar Asia (Singapore), Jetstar Japan and Jetstar Pacific (Vietnam) – have suspended flights to mainland China and are reducing flights across the region. In particular, Jetstar Asia is reducing total seats by 15 per cent.
• The Group is looking at transferring an A320 aircraft from Jetstar to QantasLink to meet increased demand from the resources sector in Western Australia.

Qantas Group chief executive Alan Joyce said the airlines were taking action now to limit exposure to softening markets.

“Coronavirus resulted in the suspension of our flights to mainland China and we’re now seeing some secondary impacts with weaker demand on Hong Kong, Singapore and to a lesser extent Japan. Other key routes, like the US and UK, haven’t been impacted.

“We’ve also seen some domestic demand weakness emerging, so we’re adjusting Qantas and Jetstar’s capacity in the second half.

“What’s important is that we have flexibility in how we respond to Coronavirus and how we maintain our strategic position more broadly. We can extend how long the cuts are in place, we can deepen them or we can add seats back in if the demand is there. This is an evolving situation that we’re monitoring closely.

“We know demand into Asia will rebound. And we’ll be ready to ramp back up when it does.

“These past few months have been extraordinarily difficult for the tourism industry and we’ve tried to minimise the impact of our capacity reductions as much as possible. About half of Qantas’ domestic cancellations are between Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, and we’re avoiding any route exits.

“The capacity we’re taking out is the equivalent of grounding 18 aircraft across Qantas and Jetstar until the end of May, which in turn impacts about 700 full time roles. To avoid job losses we’ll be using leave balances across our workforce of 30,000 and freezing recruitment to help ride this out. We’ll also take advantage of having some aircraft on the ground by bringing forward planned maintenance,” Joyce added.

Qantas has launched a Double Status Credits offer for all fares booked between 20-25 February on all Qantas operated flights, while Jetstar has a number of sales planned, with every domestic and international destination to be on sale over the next month.

THAI AIRWAYS INTERNATIONAL recently announced flight service reductions and suspended flights from Bangkok to the following cities: Copenhagen, Moscow, Seoul, Hong Kong, as follows:

 

THAI Frequency Reductions
Flight Number	Routing	Dep – Arr (Local Time)	Frequency	Effecitve Period
TG461	Bangkok – Melbourne	0810 – 2000	From daily to days MON, TUE,THU, SAT	01 MAY 20 until further notice
TG462	Melbourne – Bangkok	2330 – 0600
TG916	Bangkok – London	1250 – 1910	From daily to days TUE, THU, FRI, SAT, SUN	18 MAY – 17 JUN 20
TG917	London – Bangkok	2125 – 1500 +1

 

THAI Flight Suspensions
Flight Number	Routing	Dep – Arr (Local Time)	Effective Period
TG952	Bangkok – Copenhagen	1250 – 1845	26 JUN – 09 AUG 20
TG953	Copenhagen – Bangkok	2035 – 1645
TG974	Bangkok – Moscow	1400 – 2020	01 JUN – 24 OCT 20
TG975	Moscow – Bangkok	2200 – 1050
TG688	Bangkok – Seoul	2240 – 0605	16 MAY – 24 OCT 20
TG689	Seoul – Bangkok	1120 – 1515
TG628	Bangkok – Hong Kong	1030 – 1420	29 MAR – 24 OCT 20
TG629	Hong Kong – Bangkok	1530 – 1715

 

NEW DEVELOPMENTS RELATING TO COVID-19 (THE OFFICIAL NAME FOR THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS) OVER THE WEEKEND INCLUDE:

• The virus has now erupted in Italy and Iran, killing people in both countries. Italian authorities announced yesterday that the famous Venice carnival, a major tourist attraction, would be shut down, as the country became the first in Europe to have citizens die from the COVID-19 virus.

• Medical authorities now suspect the virus’ incubation period may be much longer than the previously presumed 14 days, after a 70-year-old man in China’s Hubei Province was infected with coronavirus but did not show symptoms until 27 days later.

• Another passenger evacuated to Darwin from the Diamond Princess cruise ship tested positive for coronavirus, taking the number of confirmed cases from the vessel to seven and bringing to 22 the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Australia. The Queensland woman, aged 57, “has mild illness and will remain in isolation overnight at the evacuation centre”, a health official said on Saturday night.

• Israeli and Palestinian authorities moved quickly after learning that South Korean pilgrims who had toured popular sites in the Holy Land were infected with coronavirus.

The nine tourists who tested positive for coronavirus after returning to South Korea earlier this month visited Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Cave of the Patriarchs in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Israel’s Health Ministry.

DFAT now advises travellers to Israel and the Palestinian Territories:

New entry restrictions are in place in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. If you’re not an Israeli citizen or resident, and you’ve visited China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore or Macau in the last 14 days, you’ll likely be denied entry to Israel. If you are an Israeli citizen or resident, you will be required to undertake home quarantine. These restrictions don’t apply if you’ve only transited. You will be quarantined for 14 days if you seek to enter the West Bank or Gaza from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan or Thailand.

• South Korea says the number of new coronavirus cases in the country has more than doubled in one day.

“Grave”, was how South Korea’s Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun described the situation in a televised address. Officials said on Saturday that 229 new cases had been confirmed since Friday, raising the total to 433.

Edited by Peter Needham