Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak publication for a day-to-day roundup of news at the coronavirus outbreak and its have an effect on on world industry.
It reads like a typo, as though there’s a digit lacking: round-trip airfare, New York to Miami, for $51.
It’s proper there at the Frontier Airways website online. Seek somewhat extra on Google and different absurdly low costs pop up: around time out Chicago to San Francisco for $137 or, at the Delta website online, New York to London for less than $500.
The reason, after all, is the coronavirus and the havoc it’s wreaking on airways. As extra and extra vacationers scrap—or no less than, put off—their plans, call for for tickets is plunging, forcing Delta Air Traces Inc. and its competitors to slash costs to check out to fill planes.
Southwest Airways Co., United Airways Holdings Inc. and JetBlue Airlines Corp. have all warned in regards to the have an effect on of the virus as vacationers curtail commute and corporations cancel occasions. The S&P 500 index of the largest airways has plunged nearly 30% this 12 months because the have an effect on deepens.
The Facilities for Illness Keep an eye on and Prevention recommends keeping off nonessential commute to a few countries, together with China, Iran, South Korea and Italy. Older adults or the ones with clinical prerequisites will have to imagine suspending commute to Japan. For different countries, the CDC recommends vacationers take the standard precautions.
The coronavirus has additionally altered client habits throughout different industries: Whilst airways and eating places seem to be losers, consumers are snapping up pieces like disinfecting wipes and canned items, developing some winners amid the wider decline of U.S. equities.
Extra must-read tales from Fortune:
—Checking out for coronavirus will have to be loose, but it surely’s no longer all the time that easy
—Coronavirus is mutating: Chinese language scientists to find 2d pressure
—Coronavirus is giving China quilt to amplify its surveillance. What occurs subsequent?
—The coronavirus is formally claiming its first company casualties
—Why the U.S. is to this point at the back of different international locations in coronavirus trying out
—Trip insurance coverage is booming, even supposing it doesn’t assist flight adjustments and cancellations
—Six states are nonetheless no longer trying out for coronavirus
Subscribe to Fortune’s Outbreak publication for a day-to-day roundup of news at the coronavirus outbreak and its have an effect on on world industry.