TORONTO -- As Italy announces a lockdown of the entire country and nations across the world report increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases connected to travel, numerous airlines are cancelling flights en masse and reporting significant decreases in customers.
British Airways cancelled all flights to and from Italy on Tuesday, after the country announced a national lockdown until April, to handle the rapid spread of COVID-19.
The airline said in a statement that the decision was made “in light of the Italian government’s announcement and the UK government’s official travel advice.”
Air Canada announced Tuesday it would be suspending flights to and from Italy until May 1. Its last flight returning from Rome will arrive on Wednesday in Montreal. Ryanair is also suspending all Italy flights, including both domestic and international flights.
“Passengers looking for repatriation can obtain a free move to an earlier Ryanair flight operating up until midnight Fri, 13 Mar.,” it said in statement.
Norwegian Air had previously announced that it would be cancelling some Italy flights.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte said on Monday that Italy would be banning all but the most essential travel in and out of the country, as part of a new, extended lockdown. The country, which has been one of the hardest hit by the spread of COVID-19, previously had locked down provinces in northern Italy, where the majority of cases were clustered.
British Airways, which operates up to 850 flights a day across the world, said that they had contacted all of their customers who were set to board Italy flights on Tuesday to let them know of the change.
“Any travelers due to fly to or from Italy between now and April 4 can rebook to a later date up until the end of May, move their destination to Geneva or Zurich or receive a full refund,” they wrote in the statement.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, said in a statement on Tuesday that the aviation industry “situation is deteriorating on a daily basis.”
She said that due to the drastic drop in traffic, the Commission had decided to put forth legislation to “temporarily alleviate” airlines from the “use it or lose it” rule that specifies airlines need to be putting planes in the air from at least 80 per cent of their allocated airport slots, or lose their right to them.
“It will also decrease emissions by avoiding the so-called ‘ghost flights' – when airlines fly almost empty planes, simply to keep their slots,” the statement went on to say.
“The temporary measure will allow airlines to adjust their capacity in view of the falling demand caused by the outbreak,” said Commissioner for Transport Adina Valean in a separate statement. “Without such a measure, airlines would have to continue to operate flights, even if largely empty, to guarantee their current slots at EU airports, with a negative impact -- both economic and environmental.”
As of Tuesday, there have been almost 110,000 cases of COVID-19 confirmed worldwide, and more than 3,800 deaths. Italy has more than 7,300 confirmed cases and 350 deaths.
The demand for air travel has been falling ever since the virus spread across China and started prompting travel advisories from governments. Canada currently has 10 travel advisories related to COVID-19, ranging from warning flyers to take precautions to warning individuals against all non-essential travel.
Domestic flights within the United States had previously been immune to the drop in air traffic, but Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that travel demand has fallen so badly in the past week that it expects one-third of seats to be empty this month on flights within the United States.
Delta will be cutting international flights by up to 25 per cent, and U.S. flights by at least 10 per cent. It will also be putting a freeze on hiring.
With files from the Associated Press