Asian airlines trim down routes

Asian airlines are cutting routes and taking other measures to avoid flying half-empty planes during a travel slump caused by the global economic crisis, analysts and industry players say.

With most projections saying the world economy will worsen before it starts to recover, airline job cuts could come next, analysts said.

Carriers are also expected to seek alliances and other forms of co-operation to ride out the turbulence whipped up by a global financial storm that originated in the United States, the world's biggest economy, they added.

"It is going to get worse before it gets better. And airlines are making preparations to try to ride this out," said Standard and Poor's aviation analyst Shukor Yusof.

Singapore Airlines (SIA), one of Asia's major carriers, has announced the suspension of some international flights affecting routes to India, Southeast Asia, the United States and Europe.

In a sign that even elite passengers are feeling the pinch, SIA's non-stop, all-business class service to New York and Los Angeles will be trimmed to 10 flights a week from 14.

"We do not want to be flying half-empty planes around the world any longer than we have to, because it increases our cost burden at a time when we can least afford that," said SIA spokesman Stephen Forshaw.

Japanese carriers Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways said they were slimming down by suspending or reducing flights and switching to smaller planes.

JAL, Asia's biggest airline, said it was decreasing flights from Tokyo to New York, Bangkok and Seoul beginning in late March. It will suspend services from the western city of Osaka to London.

All Nippon Airways, the country's second-biggest carrier, said it would stop using jumbo 747s on flights from Tokyo to Paris and Frankfurt later this year. It would also introduce smaller planes between Tokyo and Washington.

"2009 is shaping up to be one of the toughest years for global aviation," International Air Transport Association chief Giovanni Bisignani said in his latest assessment. "Keep your seatbelts fastened and prepare for a bumpy ride and a hard landing."

The Asia-Pacific region was the industry's booming market in recent years but international passenger traffic carried by the region's airlines fell 9.7 per cent in December over the previous year, the sharpest decline in any region, IATA said.

Only carriers in Latin America and the Middle East saw an increase.

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