China Southern Airlines is slashing flights to a wide range of destinations throughout February and March 2020. The service cutbacks are in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

China Southern is Asia’s largest airline and normally has over 2,000 flights a day to some 200 destinations.

Chinese airlines bear economic brunt of virus outbreak

Information published yesterday inRoutesonlineindicates China Southern Airlines is making significant cuts. Flights to some destinations are being suspended while flights to other destinations are being scaled back in frequency.

Chinese airlines that service Wuhan,China Southern Airlinesbeing oneof them, are bearing the brunt of plummeting customer demand as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The number of flights China Southern Airlines is either suspending or scaling back is extensive. They can be viewedin fullat Routesonline. There areseveralservice suspensions from Urumqi.The majority ofthese suspensions will impact on South and Central Asian destinations.

Suspensions and service reductions to many destinations

By way of example,China Southernhas suspended its thrice-weekly service between Urumqi and Bangkok between 12 February 2020 and 28 March 2020. The airline has suspended its four times a week service between Urumqi and Dubaibetween 2 February 2020 and 28 March 2020. The twice-weekly China Southern service between Urumqi andBaku is also suspended over these dates.

There are reductions in frequencies for services between Urumqi and Bishkek and Urumqi and Islamabad.

But it is ChinaSouthern’shub at Guangzhou that is going to feel the pinch from service suspensions and cutbacks. Throughout much of February and March 2020, flights fromGuangzhouto Adelaide,Brisbane, Frankfurt, Male, Nairobi, Melbourne,andPerthhavebeen suspended.

It should be noted that China Southern flies to some of these destinations more than once daily. Melbourne is an example. The airline may have canceled oneseries offlightsto a destination but other flights to the same destination are still operating.

This is potentially confusing as it is really a service reduction, but China Southern isn’t listing them as so.

Examples of service reductions throughout February and March include ChinaSouthern’sthrice-daily service betweenGuangzhouand Sydney dropping to once a day. Flights between Shenzhen and Sydney are suspended.

Flights betweenGuangzhouand Dubai will drop to four times a week by mid-February. Flights betweenGuangzhouand New York will drop to three timesa week by mid-February.

The fifth freedom flight between Vancouver and Mexico City will decrease to five times a week.

Airlines expected to bounce back from the outbreak

Incidents like thecoronavirus outbreakhave been described as an economic sledgehammer for airlines.TheSARSoutbreak in 2003 was said to have caused an 8% drop in revenue per passenger kilometer across Asian airlines in 2003. SARS remains a common benchmark against which the current virus is being measured.

The Avian Flu outbreak in 2005 sawrevenue per passenger kilometerdecrease 2%across Asian airlinesin that year.

More recently, the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak in 2015 saw a 12% drop in revenue per passenger kilometer in South Korea that year.

Theseviraloutbreaks generally lead to short sharp economic shock for airlines like China Southern. But there is also plenty of evidence that airlinesrecover fast from the economic setback. Previous outbreaks suggest it is not the mortality rate that adversely impacts on an airline’s bottom line, rather the size of the infected population.

While the 2005 Avian flu outbreak infected only 116 people, its mortality rate was 52%. But it didn’t spread. It’s argued because of that, the economic impact on regional airlines was minimized.

In contrast, coronavirus is killing relatively few people. The concern is therate and spread of infection. That’s why China is imposing lockdowns and quarantines. That’s why countries are closing their borders to non-citizens who’ve recently been to mainland China. That’s why airlines like China Southern are scaling back and reducing services.

The schedule information in this article was originally published by Routesonline.