American Airlines will stop flying to Sydney this week
The US carrier suspends flights to Sydney, which means the rumoured Brisbane-LAX service is also on hold...
By David Flynn , March 15 2020
American Airlines has cancelled its daily Sydney-Los Angeles service in the face of ever-tightening coronavirus travel restrictions for both the USA and Australia.
The Oneworld member and Qantas' US partner will suspend the Sydney-LAX flights from March 18 (the last US departure of the flight, AA73, will be on March 16) through to at least May 6.
The rug has also been pulled on the seasonal Auckland-LAX flight as of the same date, while American Airlines "will suspend all remaining flights to Asia, except for three flights per week from Dallas/Forth Worth to Tokyo-Narita."
American's international capacity will be slashed 75% through to May 6, including fewer flights to key European destinations such as London, while other cities – among them Amsterdam, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Madrid, Munich, Paris and Zurich – have been scrubbed from schedules "through early May, or later, based on guidance from the U.S. government and customer demand."
South America is also on the cut list as the airline "implements a phased suspension of additional long-haul international flights from the US starting on March 16... through May 6. This change is in response to decreased demand and changes to US government travel restrictions due to coronavirus (COVID-19)."
The airline says its "reservations team will contact customers whose flights have been canceled directly by email or telephone. Customers who booked through a travel agent will be contacted by their agency directly. If a flight is canceled and a customer chooses not to be rebooked, they may request a full refund by visiting aa.com/refunds."
David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.
Qantas
19 Apr 2012
Total posts 509
With the latest announcement of 14 days self quarantine we can see Qantas dropping the A380 and having a single 789 from the US (LA) maybe not even daily.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
01 Nov 2016
Total posts 122
Qantas depending if load factors are low should be able to do a single 380 to LA from Sydney and Melbourne, fly the BNE to LAX-JFK with the current dreamliner and then do a combined 380 to SFO with traffic from Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. This will help retire two 747s early.
Qantas
19 Apr 2012
Total posts 509
Sanj747 you are very optimistic on how many want to isolate themselves for two weeks. My bet is a single 787 from the US.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Aug 2013
Total posts 62
Your dreaming! Youll likely see it go all together when Aus gets put on America's banned list.
Qantas
19 Apr 2012
Total posts 509
Australia has effectively put itself on the US banned list. Who wants to go there when they have to isolate themselves when they get back.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
02 Aug 2014
Total posts 3
Now with the Australian government imposing a 14 day self isolation what will happen to qantas crew? Would they be exempt? I'm assuming within a few weeks they would run out of crew who are not self isolating?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
07 Feb 2015
Total posts 145
Cabins crews are exempt from quarantine according to ABC news (or did I read it on The Age....)
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
05 Oct 2016
Total posts 59
QF will have no choice soon but to completely ground the airline, at least internationally. Mark my words. Then they can just spend their days found maintenance, upgrades, WiFi on international fleet etc!
Qantas
19 Apr 2012
Total posts 509
Not sure completely ground there may be enough passengers for a single 787 each to the US and UK and a 737 via Perth to Singapore.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Nov 2017
Total posts 155
DL/VA are still yet to sort out their TransPac schedules in light of the recent AUS/USA news.
One or the other of the two carrier is going to have to cancel the flights and put passengers on the remaning carrier. Considering VA was due for check maintenance on the 77Ws, DL could probably cancel theirs whilst VA operates the remaining SYD-LAX flights (With BNE and MEL funneled through SYD), needing only 2 frames.
The remaining 3x VA 77W fleet are either in check maintenance (brought forward) or temporarily parked.
03 May 2013
Total posts 418
AA UA DL.....no great loss. Not sure why one from Aus would actually pay for a flight on a Nth American carrier.
17 Mar 2020
Total posts 1
I assume this means that the SYD-LAX route is also suspended? I am booked 2nd May but have not been sent a cancellation yet.
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