Airlines Cut Back on Flights to Mexico
by The Associated PressFile photoPublished May 02, 2009
Mexico is not an “A-List destination at the moment, and many U.S. airlines say they're cutting back on flights as swine flu fears wreak havoc on many Americans' travel plans.
Continental Airlines, the biggest U.S. carrier to Mexico, says it will cut the number of seats it sells to the country in half beginning Monday.
Delta says it, too, will reduce service, but didn't say by how much. United Airlines also says it plans to slash its weekly flights for next month by more than half.
American Airlines says it's monitoring travel demand to Mexico, but hasn't canceled any flights yet.
Southwest, which doesn't fly to Mexico, says it has noticed fewer people booking flights as summer draws closer. CEO Gary Kelly says bookings this week have been “erratic at best.'”
But, Standard & Poor's analyst says if the problem is isolated to Mexico, the problem should only be a short-term blip for the airlines.
In the U.S., President Barack Obama is voicing hope that the swine flu virus will run its course “like ordinary flus.”
Officials report more than two dozen new cases and scores more schools shut down, more than 400 in all.

Obama's fresh take on the flu scare came as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed cases in eight more states: New Jersey, Delaware, Illinois, Colorado, Virginia Minnesota, Nebraska and Kentucky.
There are more than 160 confirmed cases in 23 states.
Meanwhile, the government issued new guidance for schools with confirmed cases. It says they should close for at least 14 days because children can be contagious for seven to 10 days from when they get sick.