Spain suspends air traffic from Italy over coronavirus

The Spanish government said Tuesday it was suspending all air traffic from Italy for two weeks over coronavirus fears, the official state bulletin said.

"The measure applies to all direct flights from airports in Italy to Spain," it said in a measure which would come into force at midnight (2300 GMT) and remain in force until March 25.

The only exceptions to the ban are government aircraft as well as planes carrying medical or humanitarian aid, it said.

The move came as Italy ordered a national lockdown to try and curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus epidemic that has so far infected more than 9,000 people, killing 463.

Spain itself has also seen a spike in cases in the last 24 hours, with 1,622 infections and 35 deaths.

In terms of flight arrivals, Italy is the third largest market for Spain, with more than 106,000 flights arriving in 2019 carrying some 16 million passengers and accounting for around 9.0 percent of Spain's international traffic, the bulletin said.

It made no mention of flights to Italy.

© 2020 AFP