As fears around the Coronavirus take off, the Vancouver International Airport is predicting a big loss in business.
YVR is predicting that there will be 1.3 million less tourists in 2020, which will result in a big financial hit for the airport.
“It’s not going to be a great year,” said YVR CEO, Craig Richmond, to CBC News.
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Currently, there are more than 89,000 cases of the Coronavirus across the world, with 27 confirmed cases in Canada. As of Monday, B.C. confirmed the eighth case.
Major airlines began cancelling flights and Air Canada announced it would cancel all flights between Canada and mainland China, until April.
YVR had 26.4 million passengers travel through in 2019, but the airport expected that number to increase in 2020, with more than 29 million passengers.
But Coronavirus fears are not the only reason for seeing less traffic through the airport. It’s also due to Canada’s rocky relations with China and the Hong Kong riots.
Additionally, it’s related to the banning of Boeing 737 Max 8 jets, last March, after an Ethiopian Airlines crash resulted in the death of 157 people. Of those killed, 18 were Canadian.
But Richmond is confident things will pick up again.
“We will come out of this when it [the coronavirus] ends and we expect the traffic to come back,” he said to CBC.
YVR Airport isn’t the only B.C. spot facing a loss. Chinese Vancouver businesses have seen a 70% drop in business, due to Coronavirus fears.
For more stories out of Metro Vancouver, check out our News section.
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