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Europe's airlines cut flights for September 11

Jason Hopps in London

A one-day fear of flying has gripped many European travellers, forcing airlines to trim schedules on the September 11 anniversary of the World Trade Centre attacks as demand dwindles for travel on that day.

Airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air France said on Friday they were all suffering a drop in bookings for September 11 as passengers decide not to tempt fate.

British Airways, whose shares fell with rest of the industry's after the sight of planes ploughing into New York's World Trade Centre sparked an air travel downturn, said bookings had slumped for the first anniversary of the attacks.

"I can tell you we've already cancelled 26 trans-Atlantic flights for September 11, which comprise 24 to or from the United States and two to Barbados," said a spokeswoman at British Airways, Europe's largest airline.

The carrier normally runs 78 trans-Atlantic flights each day.

Air France said they had cancelled two round-trip long haul flights for September 11, one to New York and the other to Washington, because of "weak reservations" for the day.

British carrier Virgin Atlantic, which operates 14 daily trans-Atlantic flights, said bookings were down for September 11 but no cancellations were planned.

"Bookings are down for the day and though we're operating a full schedule we will continually review the situation as we get closer to September 11," a spokeswoman said.

REBOUND IN CONFIDENCE

The global airline industry went into a tailspin after passenger jets operated by United Airlines and American Airlines were used by hijackers to demolish the World Trade Centre in New York and smash a side off the Pentagon in Washington.

About 3,000 people were killed in the attacks.

Casualties also included the carrier Swissair, which went bust last year, but since then Europe's carriers have enjoyed a rebound in passenger confidence and bookings.

Many of Europe's smaller carriers reported bookings running at almost normal levels for the September 11 anniversary.

Spanish carrier Iberia said it had no plans to cancel any of its four daily flights to the United States on September 11.

Austrian Airlines, which flies daily between Vienna and New York as well as Washington DC, has seen no sign of weaker demand on the anniversary of the attacks.

Dutch flag carrier KLM, though reporting softer demand, said it would probably not need to cancel flights.

"We have a slightly decreased volume in bookings on a few US destinations on that specific date but at the moment there is no indication that we would have to cancel flights," a KLM spokesman said.

And in a sign that neither the fear of flying nor a global economic downturn have scared off the jet-set, both British Airways and Air France said their supersonic Concordes would make scheduled flights to New York on September 11.

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