Mid January saw the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov), with its source being the Hubei province in China. The epicentre, capital city of the Hubei province, Wuhan was sent into lockdown in late January in an attempt to contain the deadly virus. At the time of writing there are more than 14,000 cases of the virus worldwide and over 300 deaths.
Currently Australia has 13 confirmed cases of the virus with 4 cases in both New South Wales and Victoria, 3 cases in Queensland, and 2 cases in South Australia. There have been no confirmed cases yet in Western Australia however there have been plenty of suspected cases over the last week.
The Australian government have now called for all foreigners that have visited China in the last 14 days to be disallowed into the country. There are exemptions for Australian citizens, residents and immediate family of those. This has resulted in a drop off in the number of tourists visiting Australia from China, which makes up a large proportion of tourist numbers throughout the country. The ban for tourists to enter the country has come at the time where China Eastern (China’s second largest airline), was trialing direct flights from Shanghai to Perth.
Many airlines around the world have suspended flights to and from China and especially Wuhan. Qantas announced on the 1st of February that they would be suspending flights from Sydney to Shanghai and Beijing from the 9th of February until late March. The Beijing service was meant to be terminated in March however the cut will go ahead sooner than planned as a result of the outbreak.
Mainland Chinese airlines have now too begun suspending flights between China and Australia. China Southern Airlines (China’s largest carrier) announced that they will be suspending all services from China to Australia indefinitely. This means that the airline’s 5 weekly service from Guangzhou to Perth will be cancelled for the time being.
China Eastern Airlines, as stated before who are undertaking trial flights to Perth will also be suspending their services to Australia. As a result the remaining flights left of the trial will be cancelled as of the 5th of February.
Cathay Pacific, based out of Hong Kong remains unaffected by the crisis in terms of services to Australia. Qantas and Virgin Australia services to Hong Kong also will remain to operate.
This comes at a time when the Australian government are evacuating Australian citizens from the lockdown city of Wuhan. At the time of writing a Qantas 747 is being positioned to Hong Kong in order to fly to Wuhan and pick up evacuees. From there it will fly to RAAF Learmonth in the north of WA to set down the passengers. Following this, these passengers will be sent to Christmas Island for quarantining by SkyTraders aircraft.
Written by Ryan Tan, 02/02/2020
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