Just In: Emirates Airline To Cancel All Commercial Flight From Wednesday Over Coronavirus Pandemic

Emirates Airlines has on March 22 announced that it will temporarily suspend all passenger flights by March 25 amid the novel coronavirus worsening case.

The airline said its cargo operations would continue to provide critical logistics as the world battles the coronavirus.

CEO of the airline, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said;

The world has literally gone into quarantine due to the COVID-19 outbreak. This is an unprecedented crisis situation in terms of breadth and scale: geographically, as well as from a health, social, and economic standpoint.

He added that;

As a global network airline, we find ourselves in a situation where we cannot viably operate passenger services until countries reopen their borders, and travel confidence returns. 

By Wednesday 25 March, although we will still operate cargo flights which remain busy, Emirates will have temporarily suspended all its passenger operations. 

The long-haul carrier, which operates more than 1,800 flights out of its main hub in Dubai every week, flies to more than 140 destinations in over 80 countries.

Other major airlines like the American Airlines, Delta and British Airways have all announced steps to cut down operations, but not cease passenger flights entirely like Emirates has just decided.

On March 20, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced the first two deaths from COVID-19 in the country.