American Airlines has cancelled its daily Sydney-Los Angeles service in the face of ever-tightening coronavirus travel restrictions for both the USA and Australia.

The Oneworld member and Qantas' US partner will suspend the Sydney-LAX flights from March 18 (the last US departure of the flight, AA73, will be on March 16) through to at least May 6.

The rug has also been pulled on the seasonal Auckland-LAX flight as of the same date, while American Airlines "will suspend all remaining flights to Asia, except for three flights per week from Dallas/Forth Worth to Tokyo-Narita."

American's international capacity will be slashed 75% through to May 6, including fewer flights to key European destinations such as London, while other cities – among them Amsterdam, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Madrid, Munich, Paris and Zurich – have been scrubbed from schedules "through early May, or later, based on guidance from the U.S. government and customer demand."

South America is also on the cut list as the airline "implements a phased suspension of additional long-haul international flights from the US starting on March 16... through May 6. This change is in response to decreased demand and changes to US government travel restrictions due to coronavirus (COVID-19)."

The airline says its "reservations team will contact customers whose flights have been canceled directly by email or telephone. Customers who booked through a travel agent will be contacted by their agency directly. If a flight is canceled and a customer chooses not to be rebooked, they may request a full refund by visiting aa.com/refunds."