Ebola’s Spread Risks African Air Links as Virus Ravages Region
By Chris Jasper and Andres R. Martinez
Bloomberg.com
Aug 14, 2014
Africa’s air routes are increasingly at risk as the Ebola virus prompts local carriers to avoid the worst-affected areas, demand weakens and Korean Air Lines Co. halts services thousands of miles from the outbreak’s epicenter, signaling a broader threat to the continent’s travel links.
Airlines from Gambia, Togo and Nigeria have halted flights to Ebola-hit states, while Korean Air will end operations to Kenya on Aug. 20 after a World Health Organization official in the country, which has suffered zero Ebola cases, described it as “high risk” because of airline ties to the rest of Africa.
Among carriers with the greatest West African exposure, Air France and Brussels Airlines — Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s main link there — said last night that they’re screening departing customers more carefully, while persisting with flights. Korean Air’s decision to scrap its only sub-Saharan route could herald a wider review of operations in the face of a disease that has killed more than 1,000 people.
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