SARS hurts Asia-Pacific traffic MINNEAPOLIS (AP) =97 The drop-off in passenger traffic due to SARS continued= =20 to hurt Northwest Airlines in May, when the carrier's Asia-Pacific traffic= =20 dropped 26 percent from a year earlier. At the same time, the Eagan-based=20 airline reduced its Asia-Pacific capacity by more than 13 percent, so it=20 was able to fill about 71 percent of its seats =97 down from 83 percent a=20 year earlier. Northwest's revenue passenger miles =97 revenue produced from= =20 flying one paying passenger one mile =97 for Asia-Pacific routes increased= 14=20 percent from April, reflecting a typical seasonal increase. However, that=20 increase was 2 percent less than the increase from April to May in 2002.=20 The world's fourth-largest airline continues to take steps to match=20 capacity with demand in the Asia-Pacific as it hopes for the success of=20 efforts to bring severe acute respiratory syndrome under control, spokesman= =20 Kurt Ebenhoch said. ``In June, there are several markets in the=20 Asia-Pacific market where we are substituting smaller aircraft," Ebenhoch= said. In May, Northwest began using the 144-seat Airbus A-320 for Narita-Hong=20 Kong flights, which previously had been served by the 350-seat Boeing 747.= =20 ``There are other markets where similar equipment substitutions have been=20 made by going to a smaller aircraft or less frequencies," Ebenhoch said.=20 For example, Northwest has switched from daily Boeing 747 service to=20 service five times a week using smaller DC-10 aircraft on its San=20 Francisco-Tokyo and routes between its Narita hub in Japan and Singapore.=20 Throughout its system, Northwest flew with 75.4 percent of its seats=20 occupied by paying passengers in May, down from 78.8 percent a year=20 earlier. The carrier flew 5.34 billion revenue passenger miles in May, down= =20 nearly 13 percent from a year earlier on a decrease of just under 9 percent= =20 in capacity. On its domestic routes, Northwest reported a 5 percent drop in= =20 traffic from May 2002 on a 4 percent decrease in capacity, filling 74=20 percent of its seats. Load factor over the Atlantic was better, with more than 89 percent of the= =20 seats filled as Northwest was able to cut capacity by 19 percent, more than= =20 compensating for the 16 percent reduction in revenue from passengers.=20 Meanwhile, Mesaba Airlines, which serves regional destinations as a=20 Northwest Airlink partner, reported a 4.6 percent decrease in traffic in=20 May on a 3.1 percent increase in capacity. Mesaba said 54.1 percent of its= =20 seats were filled with paying passengers in May, down from 58.5 percent a=20 year earlier. *************************************************** 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/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.natalielaughlin.com/ TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************