The SARS outbreak is seriously affecting the health of Asia's airlines. Governments are making matters worse, not better
As if the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) were not enough to force many people to scrap travel plans, airlines are grappling with the additional consequences of some countries' moves to bar visitors from affected countries.
A case in point is Malaysia, which recently announced that it would impose stringent visa restrictions on nationals from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Vietnam, which are among the worst affected by the mysterious flu-like virus.
Malaysian authorities said they would only issue visas to student, business and government travellers - and only then if health certificates were produced showing those travellers do not have SARS. More than 150 SARS-related deaths have been reported worldwide, with more than 3,000 people afflicted in more than 20 countries. The rapid spread of the virus has caused enormous concern, but it is not yet being considered a worldwide epidemic.
While Malaysia was quickly forced to backtrack in the face of widespread criticism, its response to the spread of SARS was a knee-jerk reaction that did a grave disservice to the country's own tourism industry and to the international airline industry. The effects were felt immediately: Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways and Dragonair, for example, promptly dropped all services to Malaysia, as passenger demand that was already badly depressed plummeted further.
The action only served to heighten fears - many of them unfounded - about the spread of SARS, causing further unnecessary panic. It was also clearly not based solely on health grounds: Malaysia imposed no such restrictions on Singapore, which is also one of the countries most affected by SARS, because thousands of Malaysian workers flock to the city state each day to work. In explaining why it did not impose similar restrictions on Singapore, the Malaysian government said: "We don't want to cause panic."
The Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), which represents 17 airlines in the region, says there are many other examples of "arbitrary or counterproductive" measures being imposed by some governments. It says these actions highlight the need for co-ordinated efforts. How right it is.
AAPA director-general Richard Stirland says governments "should not adopt arbitrary measures, in particular blanket embargoes on the entry of passengers from specific countries and territories. Nor should they adopt other unhelpful measures, such as demands for health certificates, refusal to accept suspected cases on arrival and quarantining aircraft and passengers for lengthy periods on the strength of flimsy evidence and unsubstantiated rumour."
Of course, governments cannot be faulted for taking action to try to protect their nationals, but Stirland and many others believe the measures some have introduced since SARS first made headlines around the middle of March have proven unhelpful, and will have wide-ranging implications.
"Such measures could lead to retaliatory action by other governments and unnecessary inconvenience and confusion among travellers," says Stirland.
"In addition, they can and indeed have led to the suspension of air services, which are vital to those passengers for whom travel is essential. This, in turn, will result in a prolongation of the financial and economic consequences of SARS, without measurably curtailing either the spread or the duration of the outbreak."
Asian airlines are suffering particularly badly, with some forced to cut services by up to 50% to cope with plunging demand. It is, without question, a crisis, and the best way to deal with a global crisis is to manage it in a co-operative manner.
Little is known about SARS at this early stage, which is one reason why there is so much confusion and so many inconsistent moves by governments.
Airlines should be given credit for the measures they have been taking to minimise the risk of SARS being spread - screening passengers, co-operating with health authorities and taking other action, in response to guidelines from local health authorities and the World Health Organisation.
The airlines are doing their bit to cope with this serious issue. But governments should be working together to prevent the panic from spreading even more rapidly than the SARS virus itself.
Source: Flight International
