"We have suspended all flights to and from mainland China with immediate effect following advice from the Foreign Office against all but essential travel," the company said in a statement Wednesday.
The UK's Foreign Office warned people against traveling to mainland China in all but essential cases on Tuesday.
It's the most drastic action yet by a major airline as the deadly coronavirus continues to spread. The virus has killed 132 people and infected nearly 6,000 people in China so far, with dozens more cases confirmed in places such as the United States, Japan, Germany and France.
British Airways operates direct flights from London Heathrow to Beijing (PKX) and Shanghai (PVG), according to the company's website. Those flights were unavailable to book online through February 29. Passengers can still book BA flights to mainland China via connections in cities such as Hong Kong.
The carrier's move comes a day after United Airlines(UAL) temporarily reduced its schedule between the United States and three cities in China.
The US airline said in a statement Tuesday that "significant decline in demand" had forced it to suspend flights from February 1 though February 8 between its US hubs and Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.
In total, 24 round trips are affected. They are between Hong Kong to San Francisco and Newark; Beijing (PEK) to Washington Dulles, Chicago O'Hare and Newark; and Shanghai (PVG) to San Francisco, Newark and Chicago O'Hare.
American Airlines(AAL), Delta Air Lines(DAL) and United all extended change fee waivers through the end of February.
Cathay Pacific(CPCAY), Hong Kong's flagship airline, has said it will reduce the capacity of flights to and from mainland China by half or more until the end of March.
Finland's Finnair is canceling three weekly flights between Helsinki and Beijing (PKX) between February 5 and March 29, and two weekly flights between Helsinki and Nanjing (NKG) between February 8 and March 29, because of the suspension of group travel by Chinese authorities. It will continue to operate flights to Beijing (PEK), Shanghai (PVG), Hong Kong (HKG) and Guangzhou (CAN).
— Jordan Valinsky and Stephanie Halasz contributed to this report.
Virologist Sandro Halbe observes cell culture dishes in a research laboratory of the Institute of Virology at the Philipps University of Marburg. The novel coronavirus, which has made hundreds of people sick in China, also employs scientists from Hessen.
Arne Dedert | Getty Images
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The first cases of the deadly coronavirus in the Middle East have been confirmed in the United Arab Emirates, the country's Ministry of Health and Community Protection said in a statement Wednesday.
The infected patients are members of a family that had traveled from Wuhan, China, a city of 11 million and the epicenter of the new virus that has killed 132 people and infected more than 6,000. The vast majority of deaths and infections are in mainland China.
In its statement, the health ministry reported the family as being in a stable condition under medical observation. Health authorities in the U.S. say the fatality rate for the respiratory disease is currently between 2% and 3%.
The exact number of cases is unclear and the ministry did not specify where in the UAE the cases had appeared.
The UAE said last week it would screen all passengers arriving at its airports from China. Dubai International Airport (DXB) is a popular transit hub for Asia and is the world's busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic.
Airlines suspending flights to China
U.K. carrier British Airways on Wednesday announced it will halt all flights to and from mainland China, while other airlines including United and Air Canada have canceled select flights. The U.S. has issued a travel advisory warning for China and the Trump administration is considering suspending all China-U.S. flights. The U.S. and other countries have begun evacuating its citizens out of China.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is telling Americans to avoid all nonessential travel to China, expanding its travel warning from the city of Wuhan to the entire country as the coronavirus outbreak worsens.
Hong Kong has halted transport links to mainland China and extended school closures after declaring a virus emergency for the city over the weekend.
Chinese authorities have restricted travel for at least 17 cities in its central Hubei province, where Wuhan is located. It is an area encompassing more than 50 million people. The virus is believed to have first appeared in a Wuhan seafood market also selling wildlife including snakes and marmots. Hubei on Sunday shut down inter-city and inter-province buses in an effort to curb the outbreak.
The World Health Organization is sending a delegation of researchers and other health experts to China to help combat the coronavirus outbreak. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier Tuesday.
While the majority of confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths are in mainland China, the virus has also been identified in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Nepal, France, Germany, Australia, the UAE and the U.S.
Amid concerns about the Coronavirus causing illness and deaths in China, many parade goers during New York City, New York's annual Lunar New Year parade wore surgical masks, January 25, 2020.
EuropaNewswire | Gado | Getty Images
The number of coronavirus cases in China has already surpassed that of SARS, and the economic impact of the new virus from Wuhan could be more severe than the 2002-2003 epidemic, or at least similar, according to economists.
It took more than 6 months for the number of SARS cases to surpass 5,000 in mainland China. China had 5,327 SARS cases between Nov. 1 2002 and July 31 2003, according to the World Health Organization.
On the other hand, it's taken about a month for the number of new coronavirus cases to climb past 5,000 on Tuesday. The new virus was first officially reported in the Chinese city of Wuhan on Dec. 31.
Initial figures from the government indicate a death rate of between 2% and 3% in China for the new virus, compared to a mortality rate of about 7% for SARS.
The Wuhan coronavirus, which could lead to a type of pneumonia, has sparked alarm as it comes from the same family of viruses as SARS which killed some 800 people. The latest outbreak has killed 132 in China as of Wednesday's update.
"There are reasons to worry about this time around compared to SARS because first of all, the connectivity in terms of transportation and economy is much greater nowadays (as compared) to the SARS episode," Tommy Wu, senior economist at Oxford Economics, told CNBC on Wednesday.
We believe the economic impact of the coronavirus could be bigger in comparison to SARS in 2003.
The disease has spread beyond Wuhan to Beijing, Shanghai and other highly populated cities in the country. Cases in other parts of Asia such as Thailand, Japan, Singapore and South Korea, have also been reported. In Europe, cases have been reported in France and Germany, and the United States currently has 5 confirmed cases.
Economic impact
"We believe the economic impact of the coronavirus could be bigger in comparison to SARS in 2003," wrote analysts from Nomura in a Wednesday report.
China's real GDP growth plunged by 2 percentage points (pp) from the first quarter to the second quarter of 2003 due to the SARS outbreak, Nomura analysts noted. "Based on our assumptions, real GDP growth in Q1 2020 could materially drop from the 6.0% pace achieved in Q4 2019, on a scale perhaps bigger then 2pp registered during the SARS outbreak in 2003."
However, the analysts pointed out that "the coronavirus may prove to be only a temporary shock (both on the demand and supply sides) and may not necessarily leave a long-lasting impact."
Still, "the scale of the current slowdown and timing of the recovery are mainly determined by the unfolding coronavirus, which remains uncertain," Nomura said.
Oxford's Wu also flagged the timing of the outbreak, which took place just before the Lunar New Year holiday, when hundreds of millions of Chinese traveled domestically and internationally to be with their families during the festivities.
"The timing is also important because this time around is during Chinese New Year, where there are mass movements of citizens around the country going back home for family reunion. And during the next couple weeks, there'll be a massive flow coming back from home to the cities they work," Wu said. "That's why it's possible that this time around the impact could be more severe than during the SARS episode."
"Even if the coronavirus outbreak is brought under control quicker than SARS was in 2003, the economic impact now looks likely to be of at least a similar scale," wrote Mark Williams, chief Asia economist at Capital Economics in a note on Monday.
According to an estimate by Capital Economics, SARS lowered China's growth by three percentage points in its worst-affected quarter. Overall, growth slowed from 8% year-on-year to 5% during that outbreak.
"The very limited data available so far suggest that the current impact is not yet that severe but it could end up being similar," Williams said. "But it is now certain that the outbreak will have a significant impact on China's GDP this quarter."
Travel restrictions and services halted
He cited the slowdown in activity within China. Beyond the Lunar New Year holiday, Shanghai has told businesses to remain shut for an additional week, while travel restrictions are in place in around 20 cities. Many long-distance bus and high-speed rail services have also been halted.
"On top of these ... steps, many businesses such as restaurants have chosen to close and people are avoiding crowded places," Williams said.
He flagged that rail passenger numbers on Saturday — the first day of the Lunar New Year — was 42% lower compared to the equivalent 2019 period, while road passenger traffic decreased by 25%.
In May 2003 — the peak month of the SARS outbreak — year-on-year declines were 57% for rail passenger traffic and 45% for road passenger traffic, Williams said.
"While the more open and proactive official response this time may prove more effective in containing the virus, it could also make the initial economic disruption larger," he pointed out.
Passengers wear protective masks to protect against the spread of the Coronavirus as they arrive at the Los Angeles International Airport, California, on January 22, 2020.
Mark Ralston | Getty Images
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling Americans to avoid all non-essential travel to China, expanding its travel warning from the city of Wuhan to the entire country as the coronavirus outbreak worsens, the agency said Tuesday.
Last week, the CDC advised against all nonessential travel to Wuhan, the epicenter of the disease's outbreak and where the majority of cases have been reported.
The U.S. Department of State on Monday also raised its travel advisory for China from Level 2 to Level 3 asking Americans to "reconsider travel to China due to the novel coronavirus." They added that some areas have "added risk."
Chinese health authorities said Tuesday that the virus, which was first diagnosed less than a month ago, has now killed 106 people and infected 4,515.
"I think we are dramatically underestimating" cases in China by "tens of thousands," Gottlieb told CNBC's "Squawk Box."
Chinese authorities have quarantined several major cities in China and canceled Lunar New Year's festivities in Beijing and other areas.
Multiple cases of the virus have been confirmed in Hong Kong, Macao, Taipei, Thailand, Vietnam, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Australia, France and the United States. There have been no confirmed deaths caused by the illness outside of China.
The CDC confirmed five cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and said Monday that U.S. health officials are currently monitoring 110 people across 26 states for the coronavirus.
"Thank you for everything you've done for Israel," Netanyahu told the president at the White House on Monday, according to a statement released by his media adviser.
Netanyahu has good reason to be grateful for the "deal of the century."
Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations at Regent's University in London, said the agreement that Trump has promoted as the "ultimate deal" amounts to a two-way pact between Trump and Netanyahu.
Jan. 27, 202002:14
"The Palestinians were not consulted. It's a dictate of take it or leave it," he said.
"Popes used to give indulgences to forgive sinners until they got to purgatory. Now Trump is absolving Israel for occupation," Mekelberg added, addressing widespread speculation that Washington will give Israel the green light to annex parts of the occupied West Bank that it captured from Jordan in 1967 in the Six-Day War.
More than half a century later, the West Bank is home to almost 3 million Palestinians who hope it will form a significant part of a future state. More than 400,000 Israelis also live there.
Details of the plan are due to be released Tuesday and analysts predicted that it will not bode well for Palestinians, who have refused to meet with the Trump team since the president announced in December 2017 that the U.S. would recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Both Israelis and Palestinians claim the city as their capital.
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"Trump and Netanyahu care more about electoral politics at home and less about real peace with the Palestinians," said Fawaz Gerges, a professor of international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
"It resembles a colonial arrangement of a bygone era," he added, comparing the impending deal to past secret agreements that divided parts of the Middle East among European powers and promised the Jewish community a home in historic Palestine.
"Palestinians are denied agency, representation and rights," he said.
Michael Stephens, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank, said Palestinians "can't and won't" accept the plan set to be unveiled in the White House.
Even before the details were released, protests rejecting it were already in full swing in Gaza and Palestinians had called for a "Day of Rage" on Wednesday in the West Bank.
"The deal of the century, which is not based on international legality and law, gives Israel everything it wants at the expense of the national rights of the Palestinian people," Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said in opening the Palestinian Authority's weekly Cabinet meeting in Ramallah on Sunday.
Palestinians burn a poster showing President Donald Trump as they protest the American peace plan in Bethlehem on Monday. Mahmoud Illean / AP
Opposition to the deal came from another end of the political spectrum, too.
A delegation of the Yesha Council, an umbrella group of Israeli municipal authorities in the occupied West Bank that traveled to Washington for the plan's unveiling, said Tuesday that it was "very disturbed."
"We cannot agree to a plan that would include the establishment of a Palestinian state that would pose a threat to the State of Israel," said David Alhaini, the group's chairman.
If the deal includes annexation of large parts of the West Bank, as many suspect, it would "seal the fate of the two-state solution" said Mekelberg, referring to a plan to establish a separate Palestinian state.
"The West Bank would no longer be a viable Palestinian state and at best could become some autonomous region," he added.
Netanyahu's chief political rival, Benny Gantz, also flew to Washington this weekend to meet with Trump and welcomed the peace plan as a "significant and historic milestone."
Saphora Smith
Saphora Smith is a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital.
Paul Goldman
Paul Goldman is a Tel Aviv-based producer and video editor for NBC News.
Lawahez Jabari
Lawahez Jabari is a producer based in Tel Aviv. She has covered the Middle East conflict — on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides — for more than a decade.
American forces were able to reach the wreckage of a U.S. Air Force jet in Afghanistan overnight to retrieve remains, but it remained unclear what brought the high-tech aircraft down in Taliban territory the previous day.
The Taliban claimed it shot the plane down, and while a U.S. official said Monday that initial information brought "no indications the crash was caused by enemy fire," a U.S. military spokesperson told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin the cause of the crash was still under investigation. The Pentagon has not officially ruled anything out.
U.S. officials told Martin the pilot of the Bombardier E-11A declared an in-flight emergency shortly before the crash. U.S. helicopters were finally able to reach the crash site overnight to recover the bodies of two crewmen.
A spokesman for the police in Ghazni province, where the plane came down, told CBS News on Tuesday that even Afghanistan's domestic forces had been unable to reach the crash site, which was under Taliban control. The spokesman, Ahmad Khan Sirat, told CBS News' Ahmad Mukhtar that Afghan forces clashed with the Taliban overnight, causing no casualties but blocking the security forces' access to the site.
Sirat told CBS News that Afghan forces were planning Tuesday for an operation along with foreign partners to reach the crash site by ground, but he did not provide any further details.
Investigation reveals officials misled the public about war in Afghanistan
The plane came down in a remote area in central Afghanistan that is under the control of the Islamic insurgency. Videos quickly emerged on social media purportedly showing the wreckage of the plane — with U.S. Air Force markings — charred and burning.
Martin says the E-11A is a relatively large plane with a crew of just two people – the rest of the aircraft was crammed with state-of-the-art electronics, and now that the bodies have been recovered the main concern is protecting all the technology that went down with the jet.
The plane is normally used for electronic surveillance and can fly at high altitudes with an extended range. The E-11A is often referred to as "Wi-Fi in the sky," and is used to facilitate battlefield communications for American forces and their allies in a region with difficult terrain.
U.S. and Taliban officials have been working to broker a ceasefire or at least to reduce hostilities in the country. There are an estimated 13,000 U.S. troops based in Afghanistan.
