Asian airport managers discuss anti-SARS measures CLARK SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONE, Philippines (AP) =97 The outbreak of SARS has= =20 caused significantly worse damage to the global airline industry than the=20 Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Iraq combined, the world's airline=20 association told Asian airport managers meeting Thursday on how to prevent= =20 the disease's spread by air travel. "This is a crisis of major=20 proportions," said Thomas Andrew Drysdale, regional director for the=20 International Air Transport Association. The world's airlines have lost=20 more than $10 billion this year, he said. Drysdale warned of even bigger=20 losses over the next few months if no measures are taken to contain the=20 spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome, which has killed at least 588= =20 people of the 7,600 infected worldwide, most of them in Asia.=20 Representatives from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations=20 were joined by airport officials from China, Japan and South Korea at the=20 two-day meeting. They were discussing how to standardize anti-SARS measures= =20 at Asia's airports in a bid to restore confidence of air travelers and=20 prevent the virus from spreading through air travel. The meeting is a=20 follow-up to last month's ASEAN summit in Bangkok, which adopted a series=20 of measures, including pre-departure and arrival screening of travelers,=20 better flight management and establishing an early warning system on=20 emerging infectious diseases. Drysdale told reporters that the combined=20 effects of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, the war in Iraq and the foot and=20 mouth disease in Britain did not cause as much damage to the industry as=20 SARS. "At no time in the history of aviation have we ever seen declines of= =20 the magnitude that we are now seeing in the Asian region as a result of=20 SARS," he said. "Virtually every airline in the world is affected." *************************************************** 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.cso.gov.tt TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************