As airlines respond to decreasing demand for air travel worldwide because of the spread of the coronavirus, a nonstop flight at the Wilmington International Airport has been slated for a two-month suspension.
 
United Airlines is suspending its daily nonstop flights between ILM and Chicago O’Hare International Airport (ORD) sometime in early April, Wilmington airport officials said Tuesday.
 
The airport is still waiting to find out the exact date the flights will temporarily stop, said Gary Broughton, ILM’s deputy airport director.
 
The Chicago flight had already been suspended Jan. 5 based on its already planned scheduling and resumed March 6, “but we have now been told that United had a 10% reduction in capacity, which affected 150 markets, and one of those markets was ILM,” Broughton said.
 
United Airlines is slated to resume the Chicago nonstop flight on June 4, he said.
 
“The suspension of the Chicago service is the first impact to ILM,” Broughton said of the coronavirus outbreak effects, which are being felt across the airline industry.
 
Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency for North Carolina on Tuesday to increase the state’s ability to respond to the coronavirus and to allocate funds where needed, among other measures.
 
There have been no reports of the coronavirus in the Wilmington area.

Seven people in North Carolina have tested presumptively positive for COVID-19, the diseased caused by the coronavirus, according to the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.

New Hanover County officials and other local governments across Southeastern North Carolina are keeping an eye on COVID-19, which has spread to 35 states, with 647 cases and 25 deaths in the United States, according to numbers released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The COVID-19 outbreak first started in December in Wuhan, China.

Since the virus has spread across the globe, airlines have reported a reduction in demand and have cut some international and domestic flights.
 
On Tuesday, Delta Air Lines announced it was reducing domestic flying by 10-15% and international capacity by 20-25% percent, to curb the financial blow the virus has caused on travel demands.
 
American Airlines also reported Tuesday that it was reducing domestic flying in April by 7.5%. It also plans to cut international capacity during the heavy summer travel season by 10%, including a 55% reduction in trans-Pacific flying.
 
Delta Air Lines and American Airlines also serve ILM.

The United Airlines flight to Chicago, however, was the only one among ILM’s airlines that have been canceled, Broughton said.
 
“We stay in touch with the airlines, but we have not been informed of any impact from those two carriers,” he said about Delta and American. “The only thing we know for sure is United is suspending that [Chicago] flight for two months and adding another to Dulles.”
 
United is adding a daily flight, increasing from three to four, to Washington Dulles International Airport in April, he said.
 
“This capacity increase in the Washington service offsets the capacity decrease in Chicago service,” Broughton said.
 
And on top of United resuming its Chicago nonstop service at ILM this summer, American is also slated to resume its regularly scheduled seasonal nonstop flight between ILM and ORD on June 4, airport officials said Tuesday.
 
The airport is taking percussions by cleaning heavily touched areas twice a day in the building, such as elevator buttons and chair armrests, as well as keeping hand sanitizing stations at entrances, Broughton said. 
 
Passenger levels started off strong earlier this year.
 
“Thankfully … we are still showing double-digit growth,” Broughton said, adding that while the official numbers have not come in, February was on track for a 13% increase over the previous February.
 
As of Tuesday, Broughton said he is not seeing a significant change to ILM’s count on daily loads, the number of people boarding aircrafts as reported by the airlines.
 
All three airlines that service the airport are waiving fees for rescheduling and canceling tickets under certain dates. Broughton said he encouraged passengers to check with the airlines for more information.