EU may aid airlines hit by Iraq war, but no green light for subsidies BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) =97 European Union regulators may relax EU= competition=20 rules to help airlines cope with the Iraq war, which the industry fears=20 will lead to $10 billion in losses, officials said Tuesday. Proposals under= =20 discussion would allow governments to cover costs of extra security=20 measures and loosen rules that oblige airlines to give under-used routes to= =20 rivals. EU spokesman Gilles Gantelet said regulators may cast a "favorable eye" on= =20 airline alliances on particularly cluttered routes. However the Iraq crisis does not yet merit any direct compensation payments= =20 to airlines, nor will EU members be allowed to cover airlines' insurance=20 costs. Such measures were adopted to help airlines through the crisis that= =20 followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. The=20 International Air Transport Association last week warned that the Iraq war= =20 could cost airlines $10 billion on top of $30 billion in estimated losses=20 they have already accumulated since the Sept. 11 attacks. The EU's head office is expected to approve the proposals Wednesday and=20 recommend them to transport ministers from the 15 EU nations meeting=20 Thursday in Brussels. Meanwhile, Europe's second largest airline, Germany's= =20 Lufthansa, said Tuesday it was cutting flights to the United States and=20 Asia, blaming a sharp fall in bookings since the start of war in Iraq.=20 Lufthansa said it was putting off plans to expand its long-distance flights= =20 starting March 30, saying demand on trans-Atlantic routes had fallen=20 "particularly sharply." It said it would cut one flight a day on routes=20 between Frankfurt and New York, Boston and Los Angeles. Flights to Dallas=20 and Phoenix will also be reduced and smaller planes will be used for=20 services to Philadelphia. In Asia, Lufthansa said it was dropping plans to= =20 add flights to Nagoya in Japan and would use smaller planes to fly to Osaka= =20 and the South Korean capital Seoul. It also announced cuts on services to=20 Caracas, Venezuela and Johannesburg, South Africa. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Site of the Week: http://www.thehummingbirdonline.com TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************