Coronavirus hits Middle East airlines ticket sales hard

DUBAI - Middle East airlines have lost an estimated $100 million so far due to the coronavirus outbreak and governments should help the carriers through this "difficult period", an official of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said on Monday.

Ticket sales in the region for Middle Eastern airlines are expected to drop in coming weeks and revenues are at risk if travel restrictions in Asia are extended, IATA Vice President for Africa and the Middle East Muhammad Ali Albakri told reporters.

The news came few days after the Lebanese carrier announced that it would stop ticket sales at its offices and branches following travel and tourism agencies’ protest last January of “unfair competition” in front of MEA’s offices in Hamra.

The agents claimed that state-owned MEA had been dealing with them in US Dollars while selling tickets to customers directly in Lebanese pounds.

A crippling liquidity crunch in the Mediterranean country has drastically limited access to dollars.

The Lebanese pound used to be easily exchangeable for dollars at a fixed rate, but now banks have capped withdrawals of the US currency and its value has plummeted on the parallel market.

The country is on the brink of defaulting on its sovereign debt, with a $1.2 billion Eurobond payment due this month.