OAG Travel News

The flu outbreak is causing global alarm
Global shares have fallen in Monday trading, with airlines leading the declines on fears about the economic impact of the swine flu outbreak.

With the outbreak in Mexico spreading to the US and Canada, shares in British Airways were down 8% in early trading.

Australia's Qantas and Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific earlier fell sharply. Tourism shares were also markedly lower, with Thomas Cook down 7.9%.

Investors fear the flu outbreak may lead to global travel restrictions.

'Real concern'

Analysts said investors were more cautious than panicked, but still concerned that if the outbreak worsened, especially in the US, it could potentially derail economic recovery efforts.
 
Shares in airlines have fallen around the world
 
"In essence, this is an already dangerous time for financial markets so to have this spectre developing right now is just cause for some very real concern," said analyst James Hughes of CMC Markets.

Shares in other UK-listed travel firms were also lower, with cruise operator Carnival losing 7%, while hotel business Intercontinental was down 5.3%, and tour operator TUI had lost 4.9%.

But some shares were benefiting from the scare. Shares in the Swiss drug firm Roche were up 3.9%.

Roche is the manufacturer of the flu drug Tamiflu, which has already been shown to work against the outbreak in Mexico.

"We are in the process of reinstating our activities and checking all the processes to see how we can scale up [production]," said a company spokeswoman.

'Health emergency'

The UK's main FTSE 100 index was down 1.2% or 50 points at 4,106 in early trading, while Germany's Dax had lost 1.9%.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng had earlier ended down 2.7%, with Cathay Pacific losing 8%.

In Australia Qantas ended down 3.5%.

US soy and corn prices have also fallen on fears that the flu outbreak will cause a slump in demand for pork products, which would hit demand for animal feed.

However, despite the name "swine flu", the new strain is not infecting pigs.

The World Health Organization has declared the flu a "public health emergency of international concern", warning that it could spark a pandemic, or global outbreak.

 Source: www.bbc.co.uk