In China, 17 people are now reported to have died as a result of the new coronavirus, which leads to serious lung disease. A meeting is currently underway within the World Health Organization (WHO) – and this evening there may be an announcement to declare a state of emergency regarding the spread of the feared coronavirus.

In China, 17 people are now reported to have died as a result of the new coronavirus, which leads to serious lung disease.

The airline SAS is awaiting recommendations from authorities, says the company's press manager Freja Annamatz:

– We are following developments closely and are also following the recommendations and instructions from authorities, (but at the moment we are following developments.

Too soon 17 Years ago, when the SARS epidemic began to spread, also originating in China, the airline industry was hit hard. Many travelers chose not to fly to Asia, and in Japan, for example, companies banned their employees from traveling to infected areas, and flights from Japan to China were also canceled, and today you can also see a certain decline in the stock prices of Asian airlines.

And the aviation industry is a sensitive industry, says Anders Karlsson, editor-in-chief of the news site Flygtorget:

”"I imagine that that year, flights went down in some parts of the world, in Asia it went down by 40-45 % I think. In Sweden it went down by 15-20% because we have a lot of people who travel to Asia and then it naturally has an impact. The airline industry is very aware that these types of events affect people's willingness to fly."”

Aviation and the aviation industry are constantly high on the media reports and in people's minds, it's there all the time. And that means that it is very easily influenced by these types of events. In the same way that terrorist incidents and to some extent plane crashes also affect people's willingness to choose aviation, in this way the aviation industry is extremely susceptible to external events.”

Source: sverigesradio.se