An American Airlines flight from New York to Milan Malpensa was canceled because the crew refused to operate a connection destined for an area, Northern Italy, for a few days with the coronavirus emergency. The Boeing 777-200 of flight AA198 was expected to take off with over 200 passengers (and not three hundred as leaked at first) – including an Italian delegation of twenty-two Italian lawyers in the US city for a refresher course – at 18 local time (the midnight of March 1 in Italy), but the take-off was first postponed for 25 minutes, then 55 minutes, only to be canceled.
We can confirm that the AA198 New York-Milan flight was canceled for operational reasons, a spokesman for American Airlines, one of the largest airlines in the world, told Corriere della Sera over the night. At the basis of the cancellation was the staff’s decision not to fly for fears related to coronavirus in Northern Italy, he added after a solicitation on the reasons. We can assure you that all passengers will be accommodated on other flights to Milan. The decision of the American Airlines staff is likely to have significant effects on the connections between the two countries in the coming days. The US Department of State raised the alert level by inviting countrymen to avoid, if possible, going to Italian regions with coronavirus cases. As for our flights to Italy, in the coming days we will evaluate what decisions to make, continues the spokesman for the American carrier.
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