American Airlines suspends US-China flights

American Airlines, the World’s largest airline, is suspending operations between the US and China, according to the unofficial transcript of breaking news from CNBC‘s Phil LeBeau on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

“…once the State Department issued the Do Not Travel warning, you combine that with the fact that these planes may be only 35% or 40% full, it makes no sense for the airlines to continue these flights,” said LeBeau, according to the transcript US and Global News received from NBCUniversal, the owner of CNBC.

“So, that is why we already saw Delta make this announcement this morning. Now you have American announcing that it is suspending operations between the U.S. and China. And I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear something from United fairly soon, as it is the only carrier right now that has not made a decision to completely stop flights between the U.S. and China.”

American Airlines also issued an update saying, “Based on the U.S. Department of State’s recent increase of the China Travel Advisory to a Level 4 (Do Not Travel), American is suspending its operations to and from the Chinese mainland beginning today through March 27.”

The update added, “Our teams are contacting affected customers directly to accommodate their needs. We will continue to evaluate the schedule for March 28 and beyond and make any adjustments as necessary.”

LeBeau also said he had been reaching out to United Airlines but had not heard back from them.

“I’ve been reaching out to United,” LeBeau said. “We haven’t heard from them.”

Saying airlines do care about health concerns, LeBeau said their decisions to halt flights between the US and China is primarily economically driven.

“And it is primarily economically driven,” said LeBeau. “It’s not that they don’t care about the health concerns, etcetera. But at the end of the day you’re operating a business and if you only have 40% of your seats full or 30%, whatever it is, it makes no sense to continue those flights.”

LeBeau also said that he thinks carriers around the world are going to shut down the flights.

“What is interesting, David, is the question that I saw you ask the Head of Health and Human Services, ‘Well, what happens if one of these people then go to a third country? Let’s say somewhere in Europe. And then come from Europe over here,’” said LeBeau, talking to David Faber. “That’s why I think you’re going to see carriers around the world just shut it down. They will shut it down for a period of time and we just won’t see flights coming in or out of China or not on a large scale. We’ve already seen it with British Airways. And I think we’ll see it with other international carriers.”

Image credit -  Nick-D (CC BY-SA 4.0)