Facebook has announced that it will not hold the face- to- face activities of its annual developer conference, F8, due to the "growing concern" about the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The event was to be held on May 5 and 6 in San Jose , in the US state of California, where the company intended to share "the latest technology" in its family of applications.

"Given the growing concern around COVID-19, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the in-person component of the F8 2020," Konstantinos Papamiltiadis, director for Partner Platform, announced on the Facebook developer blog.

Papamiltiadis has stressed that the F8 is an "incredibly important" event for the company, but has stressed the importance of "prioritizing the health and safety of our development partners, employees and all who help" to celebrate the event.

Facebook has also detailed that it is planning to carry out events, videos and live broadcasts locally. The company will report on this type of details in "the next few weeks".

Facebook has not been the only company to cancel one of its most important events due to the coronavirus. The GSMA, organizer of the Mobile World COngress (MWC), decided last February 12 to cancel this year's edition after about thirty companies announced that they would not attend.

This year's MWC was scheduled for Monday, February 24 through Thursday, February 27 in Barcelona and L'Hospitalet and provided for more than 110,000 attendees from 200 countries.

For their part, Sony and Facebook have also announced that this year they will not attend the Game Developers Conference (GDC 2020), the annual meeting of developers and companies in the videogame industry, for the coronavirus.

GDC officials said last week that they will continue with the event, which will be held from March 16 to 20 in San Francisco.

IAG recognizes the impact on demand

The IAG holding company, which includes Iberia, British Airways (BA), Vueling Aer Lingus and Level, acknowledged Thursday that the profit outlook has been "negatively affected" by a "weaker" demand due to the impact of the coronavirus

Also, given the continuing uncertainty regarding the potential impact and duration of the coronavirus, IAG has indicated that at this time it is not possible to provide an accurate indication of the prospects of benefit for the year 2020.

"Currently, we are experiencing weakness in demand on Asian and European routes , as well as business trips along our network as a result of the cancellation of events and restrictions on corporate travel," said the company, whose actions led the falls of the Ibex 35 in the first stages of the session to fall 7.8%.

In Asia, flights to mainland China have been suspended. On January 29, British Airways suspended its daily flight to Beijing and Shanghai and on January 31, Iberia suspended its three weekly services to Shanghai.

Also, the group has reduced some services to other Asian routes. As of February 13, British Airways decreased its services to Hong Kong from two to one daily flight, and as of March 13, the company will reduce its daily service to Seoul to 3 or 4 times a week.

As explained by IAG, part of the long radio capacity now available is being relocated on routes with a stronger demand. Thus, British Airways has announced additional flights to India, South Africa and the United States, while Iberia is increasing capacity on routes to the United States and domestic, reports Europa Press.

The group has also recognized that the capacity on the Italian routes has been reduced "significantly" for the month of March through a combination of cancellations and changes in the caliber of the aircraft, to which additional capacity reductions will be added in the following days.

Also, the holding company expects to carry out some capacity reductions along its short radio network. At this time, the short radio capacity is not being relocated.

Amadeus trusts a rebound

The Amadeus group, which presented results this Friday, with a profit of 1,161.6 million in 2019, which represents 12.6% more than the previous year, has also recognized the impact that the coronavirus crisis has on its business .

The adjusted benefit of Amadeus advanced 13.4% last year, to 1,270.2 million euros, thanks to the good evolution of the Technology Distribution and Solutions business, the acquisition of Travelclick in October 2018 and in a positive impact of exchange rates.

To the good financial performance of the group contributed the rise in revenues by 12.8%, to 5,577.9 million euros, and the gross operating result (Ebitda), which increased by 10%, to record 2,245.3 millions of euros.

During 2019, air reservations through travel agencies remained at around 580 million, while embarked passengers rose 7.5%, to 1,993.7 million.

The CEO of Amadeus, Luis Maroto , highlighted the good year achieved by the group in 2019. However, he has admitted that the outbreak of coronavirus will affect the tourism industry and Amadeus business in 2020, although it expects a "rebound later " following the pattern of what happened on previous occasions.

"Beyond the coronavirus outbreak, we believe that we are well positioned to continue generating growth, profitability and cash flows in the future," he said.

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Know more

  • Facebook
  • British Airways
  • Iberia
  • U.S
  • Sony
  • Vueling
  • Hong Kong
  • Asia
  • Barcelona
  • China
  • India
  • Mobile World Congress
  • Coronavirus
  • Covid 19

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