Aengus Kelly said the outbreak was hitting traffic in the Chinese New Year when travel and yields peak but that past examples of the SARS and Ebola viruses show that if contained successfully, the impact on traffic will not be long-term.

"There's certainly going to be an impact on the profitability of Chinese airlines in the first quarter," Kelly, whose customers include some of the world's biggest airlines, told a conference in Dublin.

(Reporting by Laurence Frost, writing by Padraic Halpin;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)