(Yicai Global) Feb. 6 -- China will reduce local civil aviation companies' airport taxes to mitigate the impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Aviation firms don't need to put money into the Civil Aviation Development Fund, effective from Jan. 1, CCTV reported yesterday, citing China's Cabinet that held an executive meeting that day. Experts said that if the exemption continued for the whole year, these companies could save as much as CNY7 billion (USD1 billion).

The coronavirus outbreak caused Fuzhou Airlines, Grand China Air, and Genghis Khan Airlines to cancel all their flights yesterday while nearly 10 other domestic carriers called off more than 80 percent of their flights. 

The epidemic's economic impact on airlines may be bigger than that of severe acute respiratory syndrome in March 2003 because the most recent outbreak halted many Spring Festival travel plans, civil aviation insider Lin Zhijie told Yicai Global. 

Launched in 2012, the government fund supports aviation infrastructure construction and takes monthly installments from airlines. The Civil Aviation Administration of China cut the installment standard by 50 percent last July.

Last year, Chinese airlines poured CNY10 billion into the fund, which was CNY2 billion less than a year before, according to Lin. In 2018, state-owned carrier China Southern Airlines's tally of CNY2.9 billion equaled to all of its net profit, according to its earnings report. That for China Eastern Airlines was 81 percent. Air China allocated a sum equal to 32 percent of its gains. 

Editor: Emmi Laine