IATA: Virus may slash $29 billion from airlines' revenue
Tokyo: The outbreak of the new virus threatens to erase 29 billion of this year's revenue for global airlines, mostly for Chinese carriers, as travel crashes worldwide, according to the International Air Transport Association.
The trade group for global airlines said Thursday that the virus causing COVID-19 has the potential for causing a 13% decline in demand for Asian carriers this year.
The contraction comes at a time when Asian airlines' sales had been growing, the group said.
Global air traffic will be reduced by 4.7% for the year, marking the first overall decline in such demand since the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, IATA said in a statement. How profits will be affected was still unclear, it said.
The estimates foresee a scenario where COVID-19 has a V-shaped impact, similar to what happened during the SARS virus outbreak in 2003, with a sharp dive followed by a quick recovery, according to IATA.
The virus, which began in China late last year, has sickened more than 75,000 people in China, Some 2,000 people have died in China. More than 1,000 cases have been found outside mainland China.
International airlines including British Airways, Germany's Lufthansa, Australia's Qantas and the three largest U.S. airlines have suspended flights to China, in some cases until late April or May.
Cathay Pacific asked employees to take three weeks of unpaid leave to help it weather the crisis. Travel restrictions inside China and fear of the illness have devastated demand for domestic flights in the fast-growing China market.
Many nations are warning people not to travel to China, or barring travelers from China, especially from the Wuhan area, at the center of the outbreak.
People around the world are also voluntarily scaling back travel, while some governments and health experts are encouraging people to stay indoors not only in China but also South Korea and Japan to avoid getting infected.
These are challenging times for the global air transport industry. Stopping the spread of the virus is the top priority," said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA's Director General and CEO. This will be a very tough year for airlines.
Analysts at Cowen, a US investment bank and financial services company, noted IATA might be underestimating the impact on Asia travel outside of China, noting the recent reports of dozens of cases in South Korea.
While still relatively small, and too early to tell if it will spread further, we see this as a material negative data point on the global containment of the virus, the Cowen report said.
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Congress Corporator's daughter stabbed to death inside college campus in Hubballi
Hubballi (Karnataka), Apr 18: The daughter of a Congress Corporator was stabbed to death by her acquaintance inside BVB college campus here on Thursday after she allegedly rejected his proposal, police said.
The deceased Neha (23), the daughter of Niranjan Hiremath, was a first-year MCA student, they said.
The accused 23-year-old Fayaz, an MCA dropout, has been arrested in connection with the incident, police said, adding that both of them were batchmates during their BCA course.
The entire incident was caught on CCTV camera.
According to the police, Fayaz went inside the college campus with a knife and stabbed Neha five-six times. During the attack, he too sustained injuries and was shifted to the hospital along with the victim. At the hospital, Neha was declared brought dead.
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"During interrogation, he (Fayaz) claimed that the two of them had been in a relationship and that she had suddenly started avoiding him. It needs to be corroborated and verified, but he was arrested immediately," a senior police officer said.
A case of murder has been registered, police said, adding that further investigation is underway.
Narrating about the incident, Neha's father Hiremath said that his daughter had classes from 8 am. At around 4.30 pm, when she stepped out after completing her classes, this person approached towards her and stabbed her nearly six times inside the college campus and she died on the spot.
"He (the accused) was an old student and he had proposed my daughter but she rejected his proposal. She did not like him and she usually stayed away from all this...She refused him saying they both belonged to different caste and that she did not wish to have any relationship with him. Out of anger, he stabbed my daughter," he told PTI videos.
Demanding justice for her daughter, he said that the accused should he hanged to death only then will his daughter's soul rest in peace.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah condemned the incident and offered condolences to the family of the deceased.
"An accused has already been arrested in connection with the incident and I have instructed the Director General of Police to conduct a strict investigation and take action to ensure maximum punishment for the accused," he said in a post on 'X'.
He also appealed to people to not take law into their hands.
"In connection with the incident, no one should get agitated and take law into their hands or attempt to disturb peace of the society. It is our duty to get justice for the death of the young woman, in this regard the police department will work hard," he added.
