British Airways has banned all direct flights to and from mainland China for the time being, as threats of the coronavirus spreading have impacted global airline travel. 

According to BA.com, the airline’s website, no flights are scheduled or available to book to and from mainland China throughout January and February, while it said in an email that all flight cancellations were effective until January 31.

Direct flights to and from Hong Kong, the Chinese autonomous region, were not impacted. 

The move by British Airways arrived following an announcement by U.S. airline United Airlines Holdings Inc regarding some flight cancellations, citing a significant drop in demand. 

Fears of the virus outbreak spreading worldwide have risen. The Coronavirus, which originated in the central city of Wuhan, has spread to most of China and other cities worldwide, with a rising death toll of 132, as countries warn their citizens to avoid travel to China. 

On Tuesday, Britain’s Foreign Office advised against “all but essential” travel to mainland China due to the sudden virus outbreak.

The BA said customers due to fly in and out of China in the coming days could refer to the airline’s website for further details. 

In a statement via email sent on Wednesday, the BA said: “We apologize to customers for the inconvenience, but the safety of our customers and crew is always out priority.”

Virgin Atlantic, another UK-based airline, said all of its flights to Shanghai would continue to operate as scheduled. 

British Airways usually operates daily between London’s Heathrow airport to both Beijing and Shanghai. 

The announcement of the temporary suspension of flights arrives just one day after the BA offered passengers the chance to cancel or reschedule their flights to China during February. This could have resulted in large long-haul aircraft being left half empty.

IAG, British Airways’ parent company, is less subject to travel in the Asia-Pacific region capacity-wise, when compared to other competitor airlines such as Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, analysts believe.

Asia Pacific travel comprised roughly 19% of both Air France-KLM and Lufthansa’s available seat kilometres, and around 8% of IAG’s in 2019, according to analysts from Goodbody. 

 

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