DAYS after Malaysia issued a travel advisory against non-essential visits to Hong Kong, AirAsia has joined several Asian airlines in scrapping flights to the Chinese territory facing increasingly violent and disruptive protests.

PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk, India’s SpiceJet Ltd, South Korea’s JejuAir Co Ltd and Jin Air Co Ltd and the Philippines’ PAL Holdings Inc and Cebu Air Inc are the other carriers which have cancelled flights to Hong Kong, according to Routes Online.

AirAsia told Reuters it was adjusting capacity to match passenger numbers which have dipped in the past few months.

“It is bad,” AirAsia Group CEO Tony Fernandes said in a Friday interview with Bloomberg.

He said the pro-democracy protests, which regularly escalate into clashes with the police, have also affected nearby Macao and Shenzen, as the two destinations were usually part of the travel package for Hong Kong.

Chinese carriers, including Air China Ltd , China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd and China Southern Airlines Co Ltd have also applied since last month to cut flights to the troubled territory.

Meanwhile, the Chinese military had briefly deployed soldiers onto Hong Kong’s streets, as it warned ending violence was the “most pressing task” in the city. 

Dozens of soldiers emerged from their barracks in Hong Kong on Saturday to help clean up debris and barricades left in the streets by the protesters.

The clean-up operation came at the end of a week of particularly intense clashes between police and protesters that had caused chaos across Hong Kong.

Throughout the six-month crisis, China has repeatedly warned that it will not give in to any of the protesters’ demands, and that it will not tolerate enduring violence in the city. – November 18, 2019.