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Coronavirus: Australia’s Qantas to cut all international flights as demand falls
- Australia’s biggest airline said it would suspend 20,000 staff after the government imposed travel bans due to the pandemic
- Qantas had earlier announced a 90 per cent cut in overseas flights
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Australia’s biggest airline Qantas said on Thursday it would halt all international flights and suspend 20,000 staff in response to the coronavirus pandemic, days after the island nation’s other main carrier Virgin shut its overseas routes.
Qantas said all of its international flights would be suspended by late March for at least two months after the government told citizens on Wednesday to forego all overseas travel in a bid to halt the spread of novel coronavirus.
“The efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus have led to a huge drop in travel demand, the likes of which we have never seen before,” Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said, adding that the airline would suspend 20,000 of its 30,000 staff during the shutdown.
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The move also affected Qantas’ budget offshoot, Jetstar. A number of foreign airlines also service Australian routes.
Qantas announced earlier this week a 90 per cent cut in overseas flights while Virgin Australia grounded its entire international fleet.
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Qantas is maintaining 60 per cent of its domestic flights and Virgin Australia 50 per cent.
Australia has reported more than 700 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with the increase in infections accelerating daily. There have been six deaths.
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