Flights halted during SARS slowly return By Barbara De Lollis, USA TODAY Airlines are slowly restoring U.S.-Asia flights to their schedules, a sign= =20 of the SARS outbreak's waning power to scare travelers. It still may be=20 months before travelers find as many trans-Pacific flights as they had=20 before SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, emerged. Almost a fifth= =20 of the flights were cut in the past three months, according to OAG, which=20 publishes flight schedules. But airlines are filling enough seats and=20 selling enough advance tickets this summer to prompt the restoration of at= =20 least 20 flights of the 324 cut at the height of the outbreak. "There's no= =20 question =97 we're beginning to see people moving again," says Robert Kapp,= =20 president of the US-China Business Council, a trade promotion group. Airlines fattening trans-Pacific schedules include: Cathay Pacific Airways.= =20 On Saturday, it will restore four flights between New York and Hong Kong,=20 resuming its previous schedule of seven flights a week. On July 1, it will= =20 add one more weekly San Francisco-Hong Kong flight for a total of seven.=20 Cathay plans to return to its pre-SARS schedule =97 28 flights a week from= =20 three U.S. cities =97 in the fall. Singapore Airlines. It will reinstate daily service from Los Angeles to=20 Singapore on July 1, up from three flights a week now. With the July 1=20 changes, Singapore will have 39 flights a week, down from a peak of 45 but= =20 up from a low of 21 during the height of the SARS scare. United Airlines.=20 On July 1, it will add five weekly flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong= =20 and Shanghai. It will have about half as many flights to Hong Kong,=20 Singapore and Taipei as it had in February. China Southern Airlines.=20 China's largest airline plans to return to its pre-SARS schedule of three=20 weekly flights between Los Angeles and Guangzhou. Service dropped to one=20 flight because of SARS. It will restore the second flight in July and the=20 third in August. Continental Airlines. It will resume four of its five weekly flights=20 between Newark, N.J., and Hong Kong on Aug. 1. The airlines' plans got a=20 boost Tuesday when the World Health Organization said that global control=20 measures have stopped the spread of SARS. WHO also lifted its month-old=20 warning against non-essential travel to Taiwan, leaving only Beijing on its= =20 watch list. Some airlines are discounting fares, but traveler Chris Coffing= =20 felt lucky to get a seat for his August trip to China. "We barely got some= =20 of the last seats on the flight," he says. "I was very shocked to see some= =20 of the flights were booking up like they were." *************************************************** 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.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************