Japan Airlines Co. said Tuesday it will reduce its number of flights from Japan to South Korea and Taiwan through late March and cut services further to China due to a drop in passengers amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
The cutback will affect flights to South Korea's Busan and Gimpo airports, as well as those connecting Osaka and Taipei, JAL said. Services between Osaka and Shanghai and between Nagoya and Tianjin, China, will also be reduced.
Among Japanese airlines, All Nippon Airways Co. has temporarily suspended services from Narita Airport to the Chinese cities of Wuhan — the center of the outbreak — and Chengdu.
Singapore Airlines also said Tuesday it will cut the number of flights operated by the company and its subsidiary airline as the new coronavirus epidemic dampens demand for air travel.
It provided a list of the affected flights on its website and said customers will be notified and re-accommodated onto other flights.
The routes include those between Singapore and some cities in the United States, Europe, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan and Southeast Asia. The announcement came soon after its recent decision to reduce flights to mainland China due to a significant decline in demand. It has also reduced flights to Hong Kong.
Singapore has one of the highest number of infections from the outbreak outside of China, with 77 people infected so far.
Its tourism sector has been badly affected by the outbreak, especially after it banned people who have visited China within 14 days of their arrival or hold Chinese passports from entering the city-state or transiting through it.