An update:
SARS-Hit Cathay Won't Rule Out Grounding
Sun April 13, 2003 04:01 AM ET
By Rico Ngai
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Cathay Pacific Airways, Asia's fourth-largest carrier, said on Sunday it would not rule out grounding its passenger fleet as demand for travel into and out of its Hong Kong base is devastated by the deadly SARS outbreak.
"If demand falls still further, we will have to respond accordingly. Clearly we can't rule out any particular course of action, but we will respond to circumstances," Tony Tyler, director of corporate development at Cathay, told Reuters.
He was speaking after an internal Internet memo, seen by Reuters on Saturday, revealed that Cathay's passenger numbers could fall below 6,000 per day in May, which the memo said could drive the carrier to consider grounding its passenger fleet.
"The notice that was posted to our staff simply reflected the fact that, if things deteriorated, then we'd have to take appropriate steps," Tyler said, referring to the memo, which was posted internally on Friday.
"We have absolutely no plans to do that" -- cancel all passenger flights, he added...
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml...toryID=2555211