The Middle East respiratory syndrome virus is hitting the local airline industry hard, forcing them to keep flights grounded.

South Korea’s two major airlines and other five budget carriers have canceled a total of 1,102 international flights to and from the country scheduled from June 1 through October, a report from the Transport Ministry showed Thursday. 

“The blow by MERS is much tougher than SARS. The second-quarter performance will likely sharply drop compared with last year or the previous quarter,” Korean Air president Ji Chang-hoon said, referring to the severe acute respiratory syndrome scare of 2003 that killed about 800 people worldwide.

The airlines are facing massive cancellation of flights and a plunge in passengers due to the MERS virus, which has brought a death toll of 29 as of Thursday since the first case was reported on May 20.

According to the report, the country’s largest airliner Korean Air suspended 553 flights and No. 2 Asiana Airlines scrapped 129 flights.

The report also showed that Korean and foreign air carriers together have cancelled 4,044 international flights bound for Seoul, which means that the airlines have cut the number of flights originally scheduled for June to October by 5 percent, and 10.7 percent from June to July.

The statistics came a day after Korean Air announced its plan to reduce flights to some Japanese cities, including Komatsu and Akita, from late this month, following suspending some of its service for customers traveling to China.

To cope with a fall in customers, Asiana Airlines also cut its service, which will affect six routes to Japan from late this month.

According to Korean Air, some 94,000 passengers have canceled their international trips during the three weeks from June 1-21.

Asiana also saw a sharp drop in international air passenger traffic as 86,850 people cancelled their bookings from May 31 to June 20.

The massive number of cancellations give a gloomy outlook for the local carriers’ second-quarter performance.

“Although the slump in June will be reflected in the second quarter record, it is important to see if the crisis will be protracted and have a negative impact on the third quarter,” said Kim Chung-hyun, a Daewoo Securities Investment researcher.

“Even if the MERS spread stops, it is hard to expect the passenger number will quickly bounce back,” he added.

Earlier, Korean Air announced that it will waive cancellation fees and administration fees for refunds and rebooking for those confirmed to be infected by MERS or in quarantine and their family members with tickets for travel until September. Asiana is taking the same measure for those holding tickets until July 15.

By Park Han-na (hnpark@heraldcorp.com)