Airlines hit by virus as Cathay cuts, BA sees drop LONDON (Reuters) =97 Airlines grappled with a deadly virus worsening demand= =20 on Friday as Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways cut more flights and=20 Europe's largest airline said Hong Kong bookings had plummeted. War in Iraq= =20 has hurt global ticket sales including lucrative Atlantic routes, while=20 fears of a deadly pneumonia-like virus are hitting demand mostly on=20 trans-Pacific and Asian flights. The result is that a two-year industry=20 crisis has worsened, airline executives say. "It is the worst I have ever=20 seen. There is no doubt about that," British Airways chief executive and=20 24-year industry veteran Rod Eddington told Reuters. Europe's largest=20 airline is monitoring market conditions and might be forced to further=20 adjust capacity, Eddington said. British Airways has already cut flights by 4% and is spearheading Europe's= =20 most aggressive airline restructuring, aiming to complete 13,000 job cuts=20 by September. But an 11% drop in March passenger traffic on Thursday threw= =20 British Airways' flat revenue forecast for the new fiscal year into doubt.= =20 Earnings forecasts for the time being are "impossible," Eddington said. Cathay Pacific was forced to make deeper flight cuts on Friday, reducing=20 its schedule by 14% as fears about Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)= =20 emptied planes. "The combination of atypical pneumonia and war in the=20 Middle East had had a severe impact," said Augustus Tang, Cathay's director= =20 for corporate planning. SARS has killed 80, infected thousands and=20 triggered travel warnings, including a World Health Organization (WHO)=20 advisory against travel to Hong Kong or Guangdong Province, China. Bookings= =20 to Hong Kong have "plummeted," British Airways' Eddington said. TRAVEL WARNINGS The impact has widened as Thailand and other countries impose further=20 restrictions and warn against travel. Japan on Friday added travel warnings= =20 to include Singapore and China's northern Shanxi province. Tokyo's Foreign= =20 Ministry has advised Japanese nationals to be careful about travelling to=20 Hanoi, Taipei, Macau and Toronto, a ministry official said. British Airways= =20 shares were up 3.85% at 114 1/2 pence at 1245 GMT as the stock clawed back= =20 losses sparked by Thursday's glum March data. Markets showed little impact= =20 from news that Irish police on Friday were combing a United Airlines plane= =20 after a note found said there were explosives aboard. Police were expected= =20 to announce the results of an inspection of the plane later in the day. The Boeing 777 carrying 197 passengers and crew was flying from London's=20 Heathrow Airpport to New York's JFK airport when it made an emergency=20 landing at Shannon, in southwest Ireland, on Thursday evening. In Asia, Cathay joined a rebound in oversold airlines, closing up 1.53%=20 HK$9.95 ahead of announcing its latest cuts. China National Aviation,=20 parent of Dragonair and Air Macau, surged almost 10% to HK$1.12 after=20 falling 20% in the past month. American Airlines' parent AMR Corp fell more than 14% to $3.63 on Thursday= =20 as doubts remained over the eventual size of a government aid package for=20 airlines. A $3.2 billion plan in the U.S. House of Representatives and a=20 $3.5 billion proposal in the Senate cleared the respective chambers easily= =20 on Thursday as components of separate legislation for Iraq war spending. But the U.S. Administration called both plans excessive and was expected to= =20 push for reductions in negotiations to begin next week. Congress granted=20 airlines a $15 billion bailout after September 2001 hijacked air attacks=20 that shook the industry but there is opposition to another bailout. "The=20 administration has made clear... don't depend on us to solve these=20 problems," U.S. Treasury Secretary John Snow told reporters. *************************************************** 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.ttsailing.org/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************