This article is more than 6 months old

This article is more than 6 months old

Heathrow airport has reported a significant fall in passenger traffic in February and March as the coronavirus wreaks havoc on the aviation industry.

Britain’s largest airport said that total passenger numbers fell 4.8% last month compared with the same period in 2019, to 5.4 million, once the extra leap year day is stripped out. The airport said demand has continued to weaken, with another year-on-year decrease in passenger numbers expected in March.

Heathrow blamed lower demand on Asian and European routes, regions where airlines have significantly cut back or halted flights because of the spread of the coronavirus. The traffic figures show that Asia-Pacific passenger numbers fell by 28.4% in February, with EU traffic down 4.9%, stripping out the extra leap year day.

The amount of cargo passing through Heathrow in February fell by 9.5%, to 115,800 tonnes, as the effect of the virus hits global trade.

Coronavirus live updates: three F1 team members isolated at Australian Grand Prix as Indonesia confirms first death Read more

“The threat of coronavirus is an increasing challenge for the UK and we are working day and night to ensure Britain’s front door is open and safe for our people and passengers,” said John Holland-Kaye, Heathrow’s chief executive. “We will continue to work with the government to limit the impacts this will have on UK plc.”

Processes in place include an “early warning system” to allow airline crews to report an illness during a flight ahead of landing.

The airport said it has introduced regular deep cleaning in all terminals and increased the availability and provision of hand sanitisers. There is also a dedicated Public Health England team at the airport implementing “clinically-informed, evidence-driven processes to support passengers showing symptoms of the virus”.

Brussels has reacted to the coronavirus epidemic by suspending the EU’s use-it-or-lose-it rules on airport landing slots, freeing airlines to stop “ghost flights”, in which planes have been taking off without any passengers. Airlines including British Airways and Ryanair are also halting flights in and out of Italy.

Last week the International Air Transport Association (Iata) said that the impact of the coronavirus could result in passenger airlines losing up to £87bn in revenues this year.

The updated forecast is almost four times the estimate published in February, reflecting the spread of the coronavirus outbreak to Europe.

Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s flagship carrier, warned of a substantial loss in the first half of the year on Wednesday and signalled more capacity cuts because of the coronavirus outbreak, which has forced it to ground more than half of its fleet and request aircraft delivery delays. It said four out of five staff had agreed to take three weeks of unpaid leave to cut costs.

The carrier has been at the forefront of a global slump in travel demand on the back of the epidemic, compounding a hit it took in the second half of 2019 from widespread anti-government protests in Chinese-ruled Hong Kong.

Sign up to the daily Business Today email or follow Guardian Business on Twitter at @BusinessDesk

“Travel demand has dropped substantially and we have taken a number of short-term measures in response. These have included a sharp reduction of capacity in our passenger network,” Cathay’s chairman, Patrick Healy, said.

“Despite these measures we expect to incur a substantial loss for the first half of 2020.”

It has already grounded more than 140 planes and slashed capacity by two-thirds across its network for March and April, versus plans for a 40% cut.

Cathay said it had suffered a slump in demand of 82% on Cathay Pacific and its regional arm Cathay Dragon.

The company flagged that substantial passenger capacity and frequency reductions were likely for May as well, adding it was “difficult to predict when these conditions will improve”.