Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) announced it was cancelling all flights to northern Italy, reducing flight capacity to other European and Scandinavian destinations and likely would be temporarily laying off employees. The outbreak of the Corona virus is to blame.
SAS said travel demand had noticeably declined over the next two months as a result of the virus risk. Its cancellations include all flights to Milan, Bologna, Venice and Torino from March 4-16.
The decision came after Denmark’s foreign ministry issued a warning against travel to northern Italy. In Norway, the vast majority of those testing positive to the virus have been in Italy or had contact with people from northern Italy.
SAS has also cancelled all flights to and from China and will cancel its flights to Hong Kong from March 5. Rival Norwegian Air was so far operating all scheduled flights, while Lufthansa, Air France-KLM and British Airways have warned of cutbacks because of the virus outbreak. Ryanair announced Monday that it was cutting 25 percent of its flights, mostly to and from Italy.
newsinenglish.no staff
