U.S. airlines are scrambling to calm jittery passengers and investors while addressing growing public health concerns as the swine flu outbreak moves north of the Mexican border.
Travel to Mexico typically tails off this time of the year, a factor that may help officials contain the outbreak within the U.S., where relatively few cases no deaths have been reported, as yet.
But for carriers, the bigger concern is that airline passengers may stop traveling within the U.S. and to other overseas countries if the number of cases reported continues to rise rapidly.
The worst-case scenario? Fearful passengers would stay home droves, prompting a huge drop in air travel similar to the fall-off that surrounded the SARS epidemic in 2003. Offering shades of that earlier crisis, Hong Kong and Taiwan have warned that any passengers arriving with flu-like symptoms would be quarantined.
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