Husein Sastranegara Airport general manager Andika Nuryaman said the majority of airlines serving international routes had cut their flight frequency.

“Airlines have suspended their flights because of a low demand for flights to Bandung from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, and vice versa,” Andika said on Tuesday.

Of three airlines that offer flights to Bandung from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur and vice versa -- SilkAir, AirAsia and Malindo Air -- only SilkAir is continuing to operate the routes.

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Meanwhile, AirAsia and Malindo have suspended their services. This significantly limits flight options from Bandung to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.

“There are only three flights a week,” Andika said, referring to the SilkAir service that is still available. However, he added that SilkAir had not given any guarantee that it would maintain the service in the future.

“Passengers are afraid of going to Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Therefore the airlines have suspended their flights because of the low demand,” said Andika.

He went on to say that the decreasing passenger loads on international flights had been predicted in January, when the news of confirmed COVID-19 cases broke globally. 

“The passenger load has decreased by 50 percent,” he said.

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Air Asia denied, however, that it had suspended its flights between Bandung and the two cities. 

“Flights between Kuala Lumpur and Bandung are operating normally, while the number of flights between Singapore and Bandung are only being adjusted on certain days according to demand,” Air Asia’s Head of Communication Baskoro Adiwiyono told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He added that the airline would inform affected customers any time a flight schedule was changed.

Andika said the airport had conducted proper screening of incoming passengers to prevent the virus from entering the city. 

The airport, in cooperation with the Port Health Office, had installed a body thermal scanner for the passengers, he added,

Passengers are also required to fill in a health alert card to declare if they have any symptoms.

“If the monitor detects [any symptoms of COVID-19] in a passenger, [the ground officers] will direct them to an isolation room,” said Andika, adding that the screening device provided information on body temperature as passengers walked through the scanner.

Passenger loads on domestic flights remain high.

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On Wednesday, the airport served 40 domestic flights connecting Bandung with Jakarta, Surabaya, Bandar Lampung, Pangkal Pinang, Yogyakarta, Surakarta, Semarang, Bengkulu and Tanjung Pandan.

As part of the country’s efforts in mitigating the virus spread, West Java governor Ridwan Kamil has ordered related agencies to closely monitor all flights as well as reconsider available routes on international flights. 

Ridwan’s order refers to the province’s plan to welcome 10 people from Terengganu, Malaysia to two schools in West Java on March 20. Meanwhile, some schools in the province had also planned to conduct a study trip to Bali, he added. 

“I prefer to cancel those plans. If they are not urgent, just cancel,” Ridwan said. (gis)

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Editor's note: This article has been updated with a statement from Air Asia.