Flight restrictions from China during the COVID-2019 Coronavirus outbreak

Abstract

This short note provides estimates of the number of passengers that travel from China to all world airports in the period October 2019 - March 2020 on the basis of historical data. From this baseline we subtract the expected reduction in the number of passengers taking into account the temporary ban of some routes which was put in place since 23 January 2020 following the COVID-2019 Coronavirus outbreak. The results indicate a reduction of the number of passengers in the period January - March 2020 of -2.5%. This calculation considers only the complete closure of routes (not just direct flights) and not the reduction in the number of passengers on still active direct and indirect connections. At the moment of writing, with such partial information it is premature to quantify economic losses on the civil air transport and tourism industry. This note is meant to provide a baseline that be extended to all countries of origin and updated as more recent data will become available.