JAL plans to cut more flights

JAL plans to cut more flights

Japan Airlines (JAL), Asia's top carrier, said Tuesday it
plans to suspend flights to China, Hong Kong and Bali and slash
others as the war in Iraq and a deadly pneumonia outbreak hurt
demand.

JAL said in Tokyo it had applied to the government to suspend
five routes -- from Tokyo to Zurich, Osaka to Guangzhou, Osaka to
Bali and Jakarta, Taipei to Hong Kong and Fukuoka to Hong Kong --
for two to six weeks starting in April and May.

It also aimed to reduce, by up to three-quarters, the number
of flights on 17 routes from Tokyo and Osaka to Los Angeles,
Honolulu, London, Paris, Hong Kong, Bangkok, Guam, Seoul,
Shanghai, Guangzhou and Ho Chi Minh.

Some routes were also planned to be altered and some code
sharing agreements were to be halted or reduced in size.
Over thirty routes accounting for some 160 flights would be
affected from as early as April 14 to as late as October 13.

"This is to cope with the reduced number of passengers due to
the Iraq war and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)," JAL
group spokesman Tatsuo Yoshimura said.

The application to the transport ministry updated an earlier
announcement of flight cuts in late March. The JAL group has said
some 10,000 passengers canceled bookings in March.

Earlier, the carrier also said revenue for the year just ended
March 31 would drop by 20 billion yen (US$166.7 million) to 2.07
trillion yen compared with earlier estimates and net profit was
seen falling two-thirds to eight billion yen due to the Iraq war.

Meanwhile, American Airlines, the world's biggest carrier,
reported Monday it would axe 13 percent of its international
flights in May, blaming the sluggish economy and Iraq war.

The airline unit of AMR Corp. also cut two percent of domestic
flights in May and delayed the planned launch of a Los Angeles-
Tokyo service by a year until spring 2004, saying it hoped the
market would strengthen by then.

"These limited adjustments primarily affect international
flying and a small number of domestic flights," American Airlines
senior vice president for planning, Henry Joyner, said in a
statement.

The cuts were "in line with reductions we're seeing throughout
the industry due to the war in Iraq and economic conditions," he
said.

The carrier made no mention of the impact on its operations of
a potentially deadly pneumonia strain, SARS.

US authorities briefly quarantined an American Airlines
airliner that arrived from Tokyo in San Francisco on April 1
after four passengers complained of SARS symptoms.

The alert was called off after health authorities declared
that none of the four passengers, who complained of flu-like
symptoms, had contracted the disease.

Earlier Monday, Continental Airlines said it would suspending
its flights between New York and Hong Kong because of a collapse
in demand from Hong Kong-bound passengers due to the SARS
outbreak. AFP