Concerns about the spread of the coronavirus have led some airlines to restrict or even ban travel to mainland China.
American Airlines updated its previous travel restrictions to mainland China, prohibiting all flights to the country until late April. According to a statement released on Tuesday, the company provides travel from two locations: Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles. Both airport hubs will suspend flights to China until April 24 and to Hong Kong until April 23.
“We will continue to evaluate this schedule and make any adjustments as necessary,” Americans Airlines said in its statement. Customers will be allowed to request refunds if their trips were canceled because of the updated cancellation.
Last week, the company said the suspension followed a “reduction in demand,” given recent reports of the spread of the coronavirus. The U.S. government has implemented travel restrictions, ordered quarantines, and blocked non-U.S. citizens who have recently traveled to Wuhan, China, the origin of the virus, from entering the country.
Over 40,000 people have been infected with the virus in China, and it has killed more than 1,000. China’s struggle to contain the epidemic has affected its economic growth, which fell from 2.1% to 1.2%.
A handful of cases in the United States have been reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though the risk of infection in the U.S. remains low.
“We expect to see more cases of person-to-person spread among close contacts,” Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said last week. “And we continue to expect this will happen given the explosive nature of this outbreak in China and our very aggressive public health response, where we are putting a lot of resources into finding infections with this virus.”
