What Big Business Is Saying About the Coronavirus

Also cutting back sharply is Air China, which flies the most passengers nonstop between the United States and China. On Thursday, it was granted permission to significantly limit service between the two countries, the Transportation Department said.

Air China intends to operate seven flights per week, in both directions. In 2018, it operated an average 129 flights per week into and out of the United States, according to federal data.

The spread of the virus has also taken a toll on the cruise industry. On Friday, Royal Caribbean banned all people holding Chinese, Hong Kong or Macau passports from boarding its ships. The vast majority of those passengers would be on ships leaving China, which account for only 6 percent of the company’s business, according to Rob Zeiger, a spokesman for Royal Caribbean.

Food

Several hundred of the approximately 3,300 McDonald’s restaurants in China have closed. But the company’s chief executive, Chris Kempczinski, said the overall impact on profits would be “fairly small” if the virus stayed contained.

Starbucks has closed more than half its 4,300 stores in China and delayed a planned update to its 2020 financial forecast, saying it expects a material but temporary hit.

And Yum Brands, the operator of the KFC and Pizza Hut franchises in China, said that nearly one-third of its restaurants were closed because of the outbreak. The remaining stores have seen a major drop in sales.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/07/business/coronavirus-business-impact.html?emc=rss&partner=rss