Airlines have been drastically cutting schedules to and from New York City as the COVID-19 emergency in the state continues to grow.
American Airlines announced it is massively reducing its flights to New York, down from 271 daily services in April last year to a mere 13, with the threadbare schedules to last until at least 6 May.
“As coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in New York City and the surrounding region continues to increase, along with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for travel to the area, the demand for flights to the New York area is rapidly evaporating,” said American Airlines vice president of operations David Seymour.
“This limited New York service will continue to provide critical connectivity for our customers, including transportation for any essential personnel and goods needed by the community and medical professionals battling the disease.”
While other carriers have dropped down to the teens in terms of the number of daily departures, Delta will continue to offer over 50 daily flights out of New York City-area airports or 328 weekly departures starting from 12 April. This still represents a cut of nearly 90 per cent of scheduling.
New York City is a heavily-hit area when it comes to COVID-19. This is causing both business and travellers to stay away with flight only existing to maintain cargo links and to assist with getting those from New York home or those needing to return to care for family.
Other airline news from overnight below:
- United Airlines could soon be making a return to Shanghai. With the COVID-19 outbreak slowing down in China, the Chicago-based carrier is reportedly considering operating a weekly flight to the country.
- In what may be an optimistic vision, LATAM Airlines Group predicts that its demand will rise between 60 and 70 per cent by December 2020, after the slump world airlines have faced due to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Turkish Airlines has shut down all of its regular international and domestic operations until at least late April.
- Ethiopian Airlines has become the latest airline to ask employees to take unpaid leave. The request comes as Ethiopia reports its first death from COVID-19. The airline is thought to be terminating the contracts of temporary employees. Permanent staff members are being asked to take all their annual leave and up to 90 days of unpaid leave.
- Lufthansa is stepping up efforts to repatriate Germans stranded overseas. Throughout the week, five Airbus A380s and five Boeing 747s will make their way to both Auckland and Christchurch in New Zealand to repatriate German tourists.
- Bahrain-based carrier Gulf Air has restarted operations for transit passengers between Europe and the Philippines. Passengers travelling from London, Paris and Frankfurt will be allowed to transit through Bahrain International Airport in order to continue onwards to Manila. However, passengers travelling on Gulf Air will not be allowed into Bahrain.
- The flag carrier of Israel, El Al, is “likely to close” if the government does not provide financial assistance in the coming days, airline chairman Eli Defes warned on Monday. The airline has suspended all regular passenger traffic but is still operating some humanitarian flights.
- British Airways has been left flying to just 15 destinations as demand for its services has completely dried up.
