Air Malta has set up a task force to monitor the global spread of swine flu and review the airline’s plans, the airline’s CEO Joe Cappello told The Times Business.
The global airline and travel industry – already affected by the international economic crisis - are the economic sectors which are most likely to be affected by a possible swine flu pandemic.
Last year Air Malta had to deal with increased fuel costs as well as a sharp drop in the value of sterling, which together cost the airline an additional €40 million. Another international crisis is obviously bad news for the national airline.
The 2003 Sars outbreak, which never turned into a pandemic, cost an estimated $50 billion and this week there were large falls worldwide in travel and leisure companies’ shares, which gave an indication of the potential economic damage that could be caused by swine flu.
Mr Cappello said: “Air Malta in coordination with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the Department of Health is closely monitoring the developments on Swine influenza. The airline, along with the associations’ members, will be coordinating their efforts in line with the World Health Organisation recommendations.
“At this time the WHO has not issued a travel advisory and no special action is required of airlines.
“However, Air Malta, as it did in the case of the Sars outbreak, has set up a task force to monitor the situation and review the airline's plans in these circumstances. The situation is evolving quickly and as yet it is too early to predict the effects that Swine influenza will have on the industry.”
Mario de Marco, Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism said: “The news over the past few days of the outbreak of swine flu in Mexico and a number of other countries is of concern for the global travel industry as it may affect travelling patterns of people and their desire to travel. The Maltese health authorities are however closely monitoring the situation; and have assured the public that the situation in Malta is very much under control and have urged everyone to continue with their activities in a normal manner.”
Economist Edward Scicluna said that it was difficult to make an economic assessment based on a scientific analysis which was still evolving. He was cautious in his evaluation on how the spread of swine flu would affect the global economy saying the airline industry was already going through a bad patch.
“The airline and travel industry, which could be impacted by this latest flu outbreak, has already been negatively affected by the global economic climate, and so I don’t expect the world economy to be severely damaged. When an economic sector is already down and declines further, it can only affect the international economy by such. Obviously, we have to wait and see just how this swine fever develops. The situation is still evolving,” Prof Scicluna told The Times Business.
Yesterday the US reported the first death outside Mexico from the swine flu virus as governments around the world stepped up preparations for a possible pandemic.
Germany became the eighth country to report cases of the infection and a US government official confirmed to Reuters that a 23-month-old child had died in Texas from the new H1N1 virus.
In addition to Germany’s three cases, at least 41 infections have been confirmed by the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Israel and Spain, as well as Mexico, where seven of the deaths have been confirmed as caused by the H1N1 virus and more than 150 are suspected to have resulted from infection.
The US death came less than 24 hours after Barack Obama sought an extra $1.5 billion from Congress on Tuesday as the US sharply stepped up its response.
The US president called for a substantial increase in funding to help build stockpiles of antiviral drugs, work on vaccines and strengthen international co-operation as other countries escalated measures against a likely global pandemic.
The spread of swine flu ironically comes just as business and consumer confidence in the European economy rose in April for the first time in nearly two years.
The European Commission's economic sentiment indicator for the 16-nation eurozone rose to 67.2 points in April, from 64.7 points in March, beating economists’ expectations for an increase to only 65.3 points.
The improvement marked the first increase since May 2007 in the eurozone.
In the 27-nation EU, the index rose to 63.9 points from 60.4, also picking up for the first time since May 2007 with the exception of a small blip in March 2008.
Meanwhile, the European Commission’s separate business climate indicator also improved, backing away from a 24-year low reached in March. The index rose to a negative 3.33 points in April from a negative 3.49 points.