New York – To Reassure Passengers in Flu Outbreak Airlines Place Doctors And Medical Kits On Board

New York – Lufthansa has placed a doctor on board every flight to Mexico; American Airlines has issued cabin crews with medical kits; British Airways is distributing face masks; and Alaska Airways is removing pillows as fears of a flu pandemic rattle the global aviation industry.

The last thing needed by an industry that was already spiraling toward a $4.7 billion loss this year, according to the International Air Transport Association, was another health scare like the SARS virus or the avian flu outbreaks that have hit airlines over the past 12 years.

So carriers are doing their utmost to reassure passengers that in the absence of travel restrictions by the World Health Organization, air travel is still safe, while accommodating those who may not wish to fly.

So far, cancellations have been minimal, European airlines say, though the situation is more complicated in the Americas.

Lufthansa, which has one daily flight to Mexico, has mobilized half of its 60 staff doctors, placing one on board each flight there.

“The doctor is there to answer passenger questions and to identify suspicions of flu during flight and to act to handle the situation before landing,” said Thomas Jachnow, a Lufthansa spokesman in Frankfurt.

Communication among the health authorities, the airlines and the airports has greatly improved from five years ago, he added. “We learned the lessons from SARS and from bird flu.”

American Airlines flights have long had constant, high-frequency radio contact with the ground and can “patch in” doctors to deal with any medical emergency. Richard Hedges, a spokesman in London, said the airline had issued health kits to cabin crews, consisting of masks, gloves and medical equipment.

British Airways, with four flights a week to Mexico, is distributing face masks to passengers so they can comply with a Mexican request for passengers to cover their faces as they go through Mexican airports.

The association has reissued its health guidelines to airlines. They range from advising maintenance crews how to clean air filters safely to instructing cabin crews on how to isolate sick passengers.

Aircraft since the Boeing 747 have air filter systems that work vertically, in sections five rows wide, rather than down the length of the cabin.

“The quality of the air is at least as clean as in an operating theater,” said Mr. Concil, the association spokesman.

Continental, with 450 flights a week to 29 cities in Mexico, said Friday that it would continue flying to those destinations but would use smaller aircraft. The reductions will shrink the airline’s overall capacity by 2 percent.