Qantas flight attendants quarantined on swine flu concerns

www.qantas.com.au

Twenty flight attendants working for Qantas have been quarantined after coming into direct contact with victims of the swine flu.

A report in The Melbourne Age newspaper said that the cabin crew members were quarantined after working on a number of flights having passengers who eventually tested positive for the H1N1 virus.

According to a Qantas spokeswoman, Australian health authorities requested the quarantine as a “precautionary measure”, but as of yet, there had been no confirmed cases of swine flu among the flight attendants.

Low-cost carrier Jetstar, an offshoot of Qantas, has revealed that it will cancel 31 of its flights to Japan in June – nearly one-third – as a result of  “significant softening” of passenger demand due to swine flu fears.

Jetstar normally operates 21 weekly flights to Japan, and is warning that more cutbacks are possible if passenger demand doesn’t improve.

Simon Westaway, a spokesman for Jetstar, said to The Australian: “Initially, we were seeing a lot of school group cancellations but it is now transferring through to Japanese nationals of any background or persuasion.”

Tourism executives are calling for calm, emphasising that the swine flu risk should be looked at in perspective.

Matthew Hingerty, the managing director of the Australian Tourism Export Council (ATEC), said: “I’m becoming increasingly alarmed over the hysteria over the swine flu business.”

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.qantas.com.au