The Lufthansa Group has canceled all flights to Israel because of new entry regulations.

The European airline group said the decision by Israeli authorities to extend from March 6 refusal of entry to include travelers from Germany, Switzerland and Austria would lead to a considerable drop in demand.

Israel on Wednesday introduced a series of dramatic new measures against the coronavirus banning non-Israeli arrivals from Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland and Austria who were unable to home quarantine.

READ: Forecast COVID-19 airline impact soars as high as $US113 billion

“As a result, Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines will cancel all their flights to Tel Aviv and Eilat as of Sunday 8 March 2020 for the remaining winter timetable period until March 28,’’ Lufthansa said in a statement.

“The Lufthansa Group sees itself forced to make this cancellation for economic and operational reasons, as many passengers are no longer entitled to enter the country.”

Lufthansa said some flights to Tel Aviv on March 6 and 7 had already been canceled because flight crews were also affected by the entry restrictions.

The group has canceled 7100 flights in March or about 25 percent of its capacity because of the fall in demand due to the coronavirus.

It said the route cancellations and frequency adjustments correspond to a calculated capacity of 150 aircraft, of which 125 are short- and medium-haul and are 25 long-haul.

The group fleet currently comprises around 770 aircraft, including some 180 long-haul aircraft.

The focus is on domestic flights from the Frankfurt hub to Berlin, Munich and Hamburg as well as from Munich to Berlin, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Bremen and Hanover.

“These are high-frequency connections, some of which are operated up to every half hour by Lufthansa,’’ Lufthansa said. “This means that numerous rebooking options are available.”

A second focus of the route cancellations and frequency adjustments is Italy. This includes the destinations of Milan, Venice, Rome, Turin, Verona, Bologna, Ancona and Pisa.

But flights to Scandinavia, Great Britain, the Baltic States, Poland, Russia, France, Spain, Portugal and the UK are also affected.

Long-haul reductions include flights to Hong Kong and South Korea.

The airline said it would message affected customers who had provided contact details and advised others to check its website.

American Airlines has extended change fee waivers to March 31 in a bid to convince customers to keep flying during the coronavirus epidemic.

The airline said it wanted to give customers additional flexibility in light of the concerns about COVID-19.

“Customers will have even more flexibility since any ticket purchased by March 31 will not incur change fees prior to travel,’’ it said

“The offer is available for any of American’s published non-refundable fares.”

READ: Forecast COVID-19 airline impact soars as high as $US113 billion.

American is one of a number of airlines to offer fee waivers in the current crisis to encourage nervous travelers to buy tickets as carriers confront “no shows” of up to 50 percent and softening forward bookings.

Air New Zealand on Thursday became the latest to join the trend with a fee waiver for all new international bookings ticketed from March 5 to March 31.

The Kiwi airline is waiving fees and penalties but says any applicable service fee and fare difference will apply if the same booking class is not available at the time of rebooking. Non-refundable fares also remain so.

Others to introduce the waivers include British Airways, JetBlue and Alaska Airlines.

The rules differ slightly between airlines but in BA’s case, it gives travelers to flexibility to delay travel booked by March 16.

JetBlue started the trend on February 27 when it offered to suspend change and cancellation fees for all new flight bookings made from that date to March 11 covering travel up to June 1.

The change applies to all fares, including Blue Basic, which generally doesn’t allow changes.

Alaska Airlines followed with a “peace of mind waiver”.

“Don’t worry about booking your ticket,’’ it said. “A waiver is currently in place for new tickets booked February 27-March 12, for travel through June 1, 2020.”

The number of coronavirus cases globally is approaching 100,000 but more than half have now recovered.

There have been about at least 3,347 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s global tally, with the number of cases in China far and above those in any other country, followed by South Korea.

The number of cases in Italy has now overtaken those in Iran and the European country now has the second-highest number of fatalities after China.

Airlines have flagged revenues losses of up to $US113 billion as the US Congress has approved $US8.3 billion to fight the epidemic.

The outbreak also claimed its first airline victim with British regional carrier Flybe forced into administration and its flights canceled.

Qatar Airways has published a video showing staff cleaning one of its aircraft in a move designed to allay fears about flying during the coronavirus outbreak.

Flying is one of the safer modes of transportation in the current COVID-19 crisis.

The International Air Transport Association says that aircraft air conditioning systems are equipped with high-energy particulate air (HEPA) filters that can screen more than 99.9 per cent of airborne threats, including microbes and viruses.

READ Lowest air traffic growth in a decade “tip of the iceberg’.

Air is refreshed every two to three minutes in the newest planes with about 50 per cent of it coming from outside.

This means the risk of contracting a virus on an aircraft is lower than the risk from daily activities such as going to work in an office.

Many airlines have also upgraded aircraft cleaning procedures to deal with surfaces that can potentially transmit the coronavirus.

Judge for yourself below and also see for yourself here at QatarAirways.

Qantas has been told to improve the cleaning of its aircraft after an inspection revealed problems such as workers cleaning tray tables with the same wet cloth without disinfectant.

SafeWork NSW issued the airline with an improvement notice after a  February 26 inspection of the airline’s cleaning practices on a Sydney aircraft.

It said workers and others may have been at risk of injury or illness from “the inadequate system of work” used to clean planes transporting passengers with an infectious disease.

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The workplace safety watchdog told the airline it must develop and maintain a safe system to work to clean aircraft that minimize the risk of “workers and others to infectious diseases, including the novel coronavirus COVID 19”.

The notice, seen by AirlineRatings, said fleet presentation crew had been observed cleaning a Qantas aircraft “where they were required to handle wet and used tissues, used face masks, soiled nappies and the workers advised they occasionally have to clean blood and vomit off surfaces”.

“PPE (personal protective equipment) was not mandated for the majority of these tasks,’’ it said.  “I also observed workers wiping over multiple tray tables with the same wet cloths with no disinfectant and cleaning unknown liquids on floors and surfaces.’’

Qantas said it was investigating the SafeWork NSW claim after the inspector observed an aircraft being cleaned in Sydney last week.

It insisted all its aircraft were thoroughly cleaned after each international flight.

“All of our fleet presentation teams are provided with personal protective equipment for cleaning the aircraft and for more hazardous items, we have additional equipment such as masks and safety suits,’’ a spokesman said.

The Transport Workers’ Union, which is at loggerheads with the Qantas Group over other industrial issues, said the investigation followed the suspension by Qantas of a worker who raised concerns about coronavirus.

It noted Qantas also sent a letter on January 31 formally directing the employee to clean planes, including those originating at the time in China.

This was just prior to the travel ban on China and Qantas suspending flights.

“The Safe Work NSW improvement notice reflects the concerns the worker, an elected and trained health and safety representative, raised on the day Qantas stood him down, including the lack of safety systems and the risk of contracting the virus,’’ TWU NSW branch secretary Richard Olsen said.

“His colleagues shared his concerns and 100 of them signed a petition calling for him to be reinstated.

“Workers are worried about the risk to passengers, themselves and their families because of Qantas’s refusal to provide training and protective gear since this outbreak began.”

The union called on Qantas to engage infection control experts and to meet the SafeWork NSW demands.

It said Air China resumed flights to Australia on Wednesday and Qantas ground workers were cleaning and servicing the flights.

Workers at some airports had been issued the guidelines about resumed flights while those at other facilities had not.

“Workers are worried and are contacting us daily about their concerns,’’ TWU national secretary Michael Kaine said.

“They live in fear about contracting or spreading the virus but are terrified to speak out because of the corporate bullying attitude of Qantas. This must end so Australia can deal with this virus in a calm and responsible manner.”

Downunder Virgin Australia has poked fun on social media at the crazy rush on toilet paper in stores announcing all its planes have the precious commodity in abundant supply.

Most supermarkets in Australia – and in many other countries – have been stripped bare by panic buying of toilet paper in response to the coronavirus scare.

One supermarket in Australia is rationing the super-soft paper.

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