Update: American Airlines has now cancelled many routes through summer 2020 and beyond.
A few weeks ago American Airlines suspended all flights to Beijing, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, through late April. They’re now extended suspensions to one of their two remaining destinations in Asia.
In this post:
American Airlines suspends Seoul Incheon flights
It has today been announced that American Airlines will be suspending their route between Dallas and Seoul Incheon between March 4 and April 24, 2020.
The route is currently operated daily by a Boeing 787-9, and is expected to resume on April 25, 2020.
American Airlines will be contacting customers impacted by these cancelations, and customers on canceled flights can either choose to be rebooked, or can receive a full refund.
What about Delta and United?
As of now, Delta and United continue to operate flights to Seoul:
- Delta is operating flights to Seoul from Atlanta, Detroit, and Seattle, though with reduced frequencies, and has just suspended their Minneapolis to Seoul flight
- United is operating flights to Seoul from San Francisco, though they’ve reduced frequencies, as they’ve done with many Asia routes; United is going from operating up to 12x weekly flights, to offering just 3x weekly flights through late April
American’s only remaining destination in Asia is Tokyo
As it stands, American’s only remaining destination in Asia is Tokyo, as the airline flies to Haneda and Narita:
- American flies to Tokyo Haneda from Los Angeles, and is supposed to get a new flight from Dallas as of late March
- American flies to Tokyo Narita from Dallas and Los Angeles, though the Dallas flight is expected to end in late March, when the flight switches to Haneda
Bottom line
Demand for air travel is down across the board, especially for travel to & from Asia. It’s not surprising to see American suspend their Seoul flight, meaning at this point their only destination in Asia is Tokyo.
I wonder if they’ll reduce Tokyo frequencies next, and if the suspended routes will actually resume in late April…
On top of all of this, American has also suspended both of their routes to Milan.
Are you surprised to see American cut ICN flights?
My flight leaves for Osaka/Kyoto in a week, and unless I need to stay here for crisis management at work, I'm going. COVID-19 or no. Just disappointed I won't get to use my sumo tickets...
Can people fly to Japan and take another flight from Japan to Seoul? If so, are those people allowed to come back to US?
We had our DFW-SEOUL flight cancelled yesterday without an email or call from American. We ended up calling AA and having the whole itinerary refunded as we were supposed to have a layover in Seoul and fly to Japan, but since the flight to Seoul disappeared and AA didn’t rebook is, we just chose to play it safe and cancel the complete Asia trip. Now the question is whether hotels will refund us. As a...
We had our DFW-SEOUL flight cancelled yesterday without an email or call from American. We ended up calling AA and having the whole itinerary refunded as we were supposed to have a layover in Seoul and fly to Japan, but since the flight to Seoul disappeared and AA didn’t rebook is, we just chose to play it safe and cancel the complete Asia trip. Now the question is whether hotels will refund us. As a side note, we tried to cancel the flight the day before AA suspended the Seoul flights, and they told us we would be charged all fees...
How are we not seeing that a place like NY might already have tons of undetected cases? I wouldn't be surprised that once US starts testing widely, we'll end up being the most infected country in the world (besides China of course). Just because we are big and well, uncontrollable (it's not a political comment - I simply can't imagine New Yorkers voluntarily locking themselves up in their own apartments for 14 days like Singapore...
How are we not seeing that a place like NY might already have tons of undetected cases? I wouldn't be surprised that once US starts testing widely, we'll end up being the most infected country in the world (besides China of course). Just because we are big and well, uncontrollable (it's not a political comment - I simply can't imagine New Yorkers voluntarily locking themselves up in their own apartments for 14 days like Singapore citizens do - also for financial reasons). Then travel bans will be imposed against US tourists and all our comments will be about forced rather than elective trip cancellations.
How long until they reduce frequencies to SEA?
And then the other US cities that will see cases of the virus? Pretty soon air travel will grind to a halt.
@Sharon Hello, Chinese person, it's because Korea's infection numbers are credible whereas China's are not.
Incheon airport is also a hub, partly because people of many nationalities, including of the US, can enter the Korea visa-free, which is sort of a no-brainer requirement for US airlines wanting to set up a hub somewhere.
are airlines even allowed to reduce or suspend flights to Haneda though? Wouldn’t it make the airline lose their slot?
Thailand is up next for Coronavirus. They are under reporting case numbers by 30x. Source: a thai doctor
Then you’ll see Malaysia go.
Lol sam is funny
Yes, do get your full dose of Coronavirus in japan, which is up next for the outbreak, while enjoying your flowers.
And don't forget to get your side dose of fukushima radiation while eating contaminated food offered exclusively for the tourists at convenience stores and restaurants.
Sorry, but canceling a cherry blossom trip over coronavirus is insane. This will be literally the best year ever to see the sakura! No crowds!
@Lisfranc I have a similar trip to Kyoto for the cherry blossom in late March. I already cancelled it.
*couldn’t * get away with it...
@Andy 11235
I’d bet the spinmeisters from the airlines contemplated going with the “we’re doing this for your safety line”, but decided they could get away with it. And it’s right: they would have been crucified. So we get the truth. We can handle the truth, even when it’s a PITA.
Lucky,
Are you still going to Kyoto? Have a similar trip planned for the PH Tokyo and Kyoto in early June (even got a tsu applied in Kyoto). Along with that and the ANA F flights, I’m starting to get depressed that I may have to cancel.
I give credit to american for noting that this is all about a reduction in demand rather than mushy "safety concerns" that have no scientific basis.
Delta has also reduced frequency of ATL, DTW, and SEA routes.
@Ben
In addition to suspending MSP-ICN, Delta has reduced weekly frequencies to less than daily from ATL, DTW and SEA as well to ICN. Worth mentioning.
I love how airlines continue to fly to South Korea which is a small country, while they all rushed out of China, where the virus was thousands of miles from Beijing where the US big 3 fly.
American currently has two daily 777-200 flights to Narita. I believe one was supposed to stay and the other changed to Haneda onto a 777-300ER. Is the remaining NRT flight just canceled because of the virus or was it supposed to go anyway? I know JAL also has a daily 787 flight, all of which end up packed.
Ben, how are you feeling about your April safari?
My guess is the routes stay suspended until June or July.
The suspension of Delta's MSP-ICN also cancelled/pushed back the launch of ICN-MNL to May 1. We had a lot of business travel booked on this route in April, now scrambling for alternatives.