Australia's Qantas, Jetstar halt overseas flights

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Australia's flag carrier Qantas and its budget unit Jetstar decided to suspend their scheduled international flights from late March to at least the end of May amid coronavirus pandemic.

Regularly scheduled overseas flights will continue until late March to assist repatriation in line with the government's recommendation against all overseas travel from Australia, the airline group said on Thursday.

Two-thirds of employees or 30,000 will be temporarily stood down from late March until at least the end of May, it said.

"During the stand down, employees will be able to draw down on annual and long service leave and additional support mechanisms will be introduced, including leave at half pay and early access to long service leave," the statement read.

The group will reduce 60% in domestic flights capacity due to cut in flight frequency beside route suspensions and postponing a number of new route launches.

Payment of $201 million shareholder dividend is deferred until Sept., given the current extraordinary circumstances.

The virus known as COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China last December, and has spread to 158 countries and territories. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic.

Out of over 218,000 confirmed cases, the death toll now exceeds 8,800, while more than 84,000 have recovered, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University in the U.S.

Australia currently has 568 confirmed cases of the pandemic with 6 deaths.