Coronavirus fear cuts SFO flights, boosts mask use
As the global health threat from the coronavirus continued to mount, the outbreak’s growing impact is evident at San Francisco International Airport, one of the U.S. hubs with direct flights to China.
United Airlines, which already had canceled eight roundtrip flights between SFO and Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai from Saturday to Feb. 8, said Thursday that the reductions would last until March 28.
“United’s announcement is a big deal,” said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst with Atmosphere Research in San Francisco. “They clearly believe it will be six or more weeks until travel will start to return.”
Other airlines have seen travel decline between SFO and China. American Airlines, which offers
flights to China via Los Angeles International Airport, plans to end those flights Feb. 9. Its pilots association sued the airline Thursday to force it to end those and other flights to China sooner.
Air China, which has one daily flight to Beijing from SFO, said flights to China were empty but those coming back were full, so it wasn’t modifying its schedule at this point.
The situation remains fluid, with the World Health Organization declaring a global health emergency Thursday and the State Department issuing a “do not travel” warning for China because of the virus — the strongest possible advisory it issues — and stating that “travelers should be prepared for travel restrictions to be put into effect with little or no advance notice.”
Mike Boyd, CEO of aviation consultancy Boyd Group International, said that air traffic between the U.S. and China was spinning into free fall. He predicted that flights between China and North America will be down 75% or more.
“My gut is you may see a complete cut of nonstop international flights to China,” he said. “No one awake and sober is going to take a vacation in China. It’s been destroyed as a leisure destination.”
San Mateo residents Angela Pan and her husband flew to Guangzhou nine days ago to visit family for the Lunar New Year, bringing their 11monthold son for his first trip to China. But a day after their arrival, China shut down Wuhan, the center of the coronavirus outbreak. Panic set in, and people stayed inside in Guangzhou — a fourhour bullet train ride from Wuhan.
Pan’s family holed up in an apartment and canceled their Lunar New Year celebrations. Then they booked an earlier flight home.
“We had nothing to do there,” Pan said, adding that she thinks people are more educated than they were during the SARS outbreak (which peaked in 2003) and are cooperating with the Chinese government’s directive to stay indoors.
She was disappointed she didn’t get to introduce her infant son to her extended family, but “as long as everybody stays healthy, that’s important,” Pan said
Michelle Du of Belmont, who returned home on a direct flight from Guangzhou on Thursday, said she and her husband enjoyed the holiday, except that they had their temperature taken often and had to stay indoors a lot due to coronavirus concerns.
Grace Shi — like more than a quarter of travelers in the area outside security at the International Terminal on Thursday — wore a face mask as she organized her bags after checking in for a China Airlines flight to her hometown of Beijing. She planned to keep it on throughout the flight.
Shi had vacationed in San Francisco for 10 days. She didn’t delay her return because doing so could leave her stranded in the U.S. as airlines cancel flights to China.
She plans to work from home to avoid the risks of a crowded office.
“Hopefully it’s over as soon as possible,” Shi said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are screening incoming passengers from China at 20 U.S. airports. Screenings at SFO started almost two weeks ago for travelers from Wuhan, the epicenter of the virus. SFO and New York’s John F. Kennedy International were the only two U.S. airports with direct flights from Wuhan. SFO had three roundtrip flights with Wuhan, all operated by China Southern.
All travel out of Wuhan and 15 other cities has been suspended in the largest quarantine in history as China tries to contain the virus.
At SFO and other airports, travelers from China are given brochures about coronavirus symptoms by customs officials. Anyone who selfreports symptoms such as respiratory distress or fever is screened onsite by CDC staff in a quarantine station — a clinical room — that is always set up at the airport, said Scott Pauley, a spokesman for the agency in Atlanta.
That screening could include taking blood samples and putting the passenger into isolation until results come back. Pauley said no passengers have needed that quarantine.
If someone should appear symptomatic, however, San Francisco officials said Monday that they are ready with an emergency operations center and local hospitals that could quarantine and care for infected people.
Business travel to China is plunging as major companies like Apple and Google shut down Chinese operations and others like Amazon restrict employee travel there.
Computer manufacturer HP said it is monitoring the situation and has implemented unspecified travel restrictions for employees traveling to and from China. Microsoft said in an email it is advising employees in China to work from home and to cancel all nonessential business travel until Feb. 9.
San Francisco State University spokesman Kent Bravo said in an email that all studyabroad programs and employee travel to China have been suspended.
Despite the cancellation of flights between SFO and China, Harteveldt, the travel analyst, felt the overall impact on the Bay Area would be muted. “The good thing for San Francisco is that there are a lot of other people from elsewhere who visit here,” he said.
In 2019, San Francisco had 518,000 visitors from China, its secondbiggest source of international visitors after Mexico, according to SF Travel. That’s about 2% of the city’s annual 25 million visitors.
“We have not heard of any cancellations or visitors who are stuck and we don’t have any information yet that would allow us to forecast potential impacts to inbound tourism to California,” said Laurie Armstrong Gossy, a spokeswoman for SF Travel.
Lubica Batakoua, manager at Samovar Tea in SFO’s International Terminal, said sales have dropped 30% to 40% this week.
“It’s usually busier here,” she said, gesturing at the handful of customers in the nearempty restaurant. “I would say it’s coronavirus.” San Francisco Chronicle staff writers
Mallory Moench and Chase DiFeliciantonio contributed to this
report. Carolyn Said and Anna Bauman are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: csaid@sfchronicle. com, anna.bauman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid, @abauman2
“United’s announcement is a big deal. They clearly believe it will be six or more weeks until travel will start to return.”
Henry Harteveldt, travel analyst, on airline’s plans to reduce flights