Airlines group sounds 'Mayday' call for industry
Airlines group sounds 'Mayday' call for industry
Agence France Presse, Singapore
A grouping of Asia-Pacific airlines on Tuesday urged
governments to cut airport fees and other charges and consider
providing war risk insurance to prevent the industry's collapse
from the impact of the SARS health scare.
Richard Stirland, director-general of the Association of Asia-
Pacific Airlines (AAPA), called on other stakeholders in the
aviation industry to share the burden currently borne by the
airlines due to a sharp drop in travel.
"Airports and air traffic management services can and must
reduce their charges, rents and other burdens which they impose
on the airlines regardless of the fluctuations of the markets,"
he said in a statement received here.
Stirland said much of the infrastructure for global travel
like airports, air traffic control, security, immigration,
customs and quarantine authorities was both "government operated
and monopoly providers of services."
"It is not just desirable but vital to the survival of the
existing air transport industry that these entities share the
financial consequences of SARS," he said.
Stirland said governments "should look again at state
provision of war risk insurance and at security charges for both
passengers and cargo being paid for out of general taxation,
rather than by impositions on the airlines."
He cited U.S. carriers which are receiving government
assistance in the areas of insurance and security costs.
Airlines in the region are reeling from the Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome, which has claimed some 143 lives worldwide
and infected than 3,200.
Bookings have plunged and airlines are drastically cutting
flights as tourists and business travelers choose to stay home.
Stirland and AAPA's 17 member airlines have slashed about 650
flights a week in April, with some trimming up to 50 percent of
frequencies.
"I expect airlines to cancel more flights if the situation
does not get better," he warned.
Stirland called on aircraft manufacturers, fuel companies and
ramp handling agencies, to "take a realistic look at prices and
repayment terms in the light of the catastrophic situation."
He said the industry has played a key role in Asia's decades
of economic growth and appealed that "in this dire situation its
distress must be recognized, its crushing burden shared by those
who benefited in the past from this prosperity.
"Narrow sectional interests must be put aside to surmount the
crisis, long-term vision must be demonstrated by governments in
assisting the airlines in the their hour of need," he said.
On Monday, Stirland said Asia-Pacific governments should
refrain from imposing arbitrary measures such as blanket bans on
travelers from areas affected.