The last air link from the Bay Area to China will end Feb. 16 when China Southern Airlines halts its route from San Francisco International Airport to the city of Guangzhou.
There are currently no flights to mainland China scheduled from any Bay Area airport from mid-February to the end of March because of the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than 560 people and infected more than 28,000 people, mostly in China.
SFO usually sees around 90 roundtrip flights a week to China and Hong Kong in the month of February. That schedule will be reduced after Feb. 16 by 68% to 28 flights per week.
The impact on the airport will be noticeable. Though the reduction will mean a 1.4% drop in total flights, the number of seats on planes in and out of SFO will drop by 2.5%, since the long-haul planes across the Pacific are often larger.
SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said Thursday the situation is constantly changing - and it’s possible airlines could cancel selected flights or end service on routes sooner.
United, which accounts for 40% of SFO’s flights, canceled all its flights to China Thursday through March 28. When the first coronavirus death was reported in Hong Kong Tuesday, it also canceled its remaining flight there starting Wednesday until at least Feb. 20.
Air China, which ran a daily flight to Beijing, will stop its route Friday through the end of March. China Eastern is doing the same, with flights to Shanghai set to resume on March 29 and to Qingdao on March 31. China Southern, which had a flight that went from Guangzhou to Wuhan and then SFO immediately halted the Wuhan leg when the coronavirus outbreak originated there, instead flying nonstop to and from Guangzhou. It now plans to stop that route on Feb. 16 until March 27, Yakel said.
One flight by Hainan Airlines from Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport to Beijing stopped service Monday and won’t restart until the end of March, the airport said.
There are still flights from SFO to Hong Kong by Singapore and Cathay Pacific airlines, Yakel said. But Cathay Pacific, which is headquartered in Hong Kong, has asked its employees to take leave without pay as it slashes global flight schedules, the airline said Wednesday.
Although SFO is one of 11 airports in the U.S. equipped with a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantine area to screen passengers coming from China for the coronavirus, the airport will soon see next to no one arriving.
That’s not only because flights are scarce but because the White House put in place travel restrictions Sunday that bar entry to foreign nationals (with permanent residents and close family members exempt) who were in China in the last two weeks. Anyone eligible to travel to the U.S. who was in Hubei province, where the virus originated in the city of Wuhan, is subject to a two-week mandatory quarantine on arrival.
Other air hubs for China travel like Hong Kong and Singapore have put their own travel restrictions in place, meaning those looking to leave China and come back to the U.S. will have a hard time transiting through another country.
Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory.moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench
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Coronavirus impact: No China flights in or out of SFO, SJC for close to six weeks - San Francisco Chronicle
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