Airlines, travel operators cancel Mexico flights due to swine flu

Countries, airlines as well as travel and tour operators, have canceled flights to and from Mexico because of the outbreak of the swine flu in Mexico. The governments of Argentina and Cuba said they would suspend flights to and from Mexico.

Argentina announced a ban on direct flights from Mexico through May 4, 2009. This came close on the heels of Cuba declaring a 48-hour stoppage of flights to and from Mexico.

Lufthansa, the flag-carrier airline of Germany and the second biggest airline in Europe, said that passenger cancellations for flights into Mexico had gone up.

Planes leaving Mexico are full as people flee the swine flu outbreak and “there are a sizable amount of travellers trying to leave Mexico,” Lufthansa, said.

According to media reports, Lufthansa was the first airline to give out details of  how carriers are reacting to the outbreak of Swine flu. Airlines based in the United States offered no details about how the disease was affecting air travel.

The United States-based American Airlines that flies to many cities in Mexico, said in a statement that  some people are putting off trips to Mexico, but not an extraordinary amount.

Some unions representing flight attendants as well as airport screening officers in the United States have called on US federal agencies to put into practice passenger screening standards and also to provide security officers with respirators, gloves and hand-sanitisers during the outbreak of the swine flu.

Consorcio Aeromexico, the biggest airline in Mexico, and the airline Grupo Mexicana de Aviacion of Mexico are allowing passengers to change travel plans.

Transat A.T. Inc., the largest tour operator in Canada that specialises in holiday travel, has suspended flights to and from Mexico.

The Canadian media quoted a spokesman of Transat, based in Montreal, as saying that flights from Canada to Mexico had been are cancelled through June 1, 2009, and from France to Mexico through May 31, 2009.

Planned flights from Mexico, the Transat spokesman added, would continue till May 3, 2009, and others would be added to bring home customers and employees.

TUI AG and Thomas Cook Group, the two biggest tour operators in Europe, cancelled all flights to and from the United Kingdom to Cancun in Mexico.

TUI said that customers of its Thomson and First Choice units would return from Mexico on their scheduled flights and that it would not send any more vacationers to Mexico till May 8, 2009.

The Thomas Cook unit of Arcandor AG cancelled flights for 7 days and is letting passengers booked on trips to Mexico to change to an alternative destination.