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.