SAN JOSE — Airline cutbacks have widened at the Bay Area’s three airports as the fallout from the coronavirus panic undermines air travel and erodes passenger volumes.
So far this week, San Jose International Airport has suffered more than 200 flight cancellations, Oakland International Airport has endured in excess of 150 flight cancellations, and San Francisco International Airport has experienced about 790 canceled flights, according to blogs that track nationwide airline delays and cancellations.
San Jose International Airport, which had been operating at all-time record levels, said Tuesday that its passenger visits have plunged 46 percent so far in March, while the final date in the survey period points to an even more drastic collapse in passenger traffic.
Southwest Airlines, a linchpin at San Jose, Oakland, and San Francisco international airports, has suspended all of its international flights, disclosed it will chop more than one-third of its daily flights, and is evaluating whether to curb its hugely popular flights between the Bay Area and Hawaii.
Alaska Airlines, another Bay Area air travel provider, plans to chop about 15 percent of its daily flights, the airline said Tuesday. Alaska also is evaluating a potential retreat from its Hawaii routes.
On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines canceled the most flights at both the San Jose and Oakland airports, while United Airline accounted for the most cancellations at San Francisco airport, according to statistics compiled by the Flight Aware blog.
Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines officials both said Tuesday they wouldn’t provide any market-specific statistics on flight cancellations. Airport officials in San Jose and Oakland also were vague about which airlines had decided to chop routes.
“We do know that airlines are beginning to reduce operations,” said Demetria Machado, a spokesperson for San Jose airport.
