Philippines' Biggest Airlines Suffers from SARS Scare

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, April 16, 2003

Philippines' Biggest Airlines Suffers from SARS Scare

Passenger loads on flights of the Philippine Airlines (PAL), the biggest carrier in the country, have plunged due to fears of contracting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

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Passenger loads on flights of the Philippine Airlines (PAL), the biggest carrier in the country, have plunged due to fears of contracting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The passenger load factor for PAL's international operations fell 30 percent from a year earlier to 66 percent in the first 11 days of April, the ABS-CBN news channel quoted the company's president Avelino Zapanta as saying on Wednesday.

Domestic flights also suffered a 10 percent drop due to security problems in the southern island of Mindanao, he said, stressing that destinations hit by the SARS virus were the worst affected.

Zapanta, however, said the company's transpacific flights saw abit of improvement as a number of passengers who used to fly through China's Hong Kong and Taipei are now taking PAL's direct nonstop flights. "In terms of revenues, it is not as alarming as in terms of loads," he added.

Starting a new fiscal year in April, PAL is luckier than most of the other carriers in the region such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore Airlines, Zapanta said, explaining that those carriers have reduced their operational levels.

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