Transport Firms Feel SARS Impact

Transport Firms Feel SARS Impact

With SARS all but killing the domestic tourism industry, the number of passengers on planes, trains, busses and ships on the mainland has dropped significantly, said the National Bureau of Statistics. About 1.22 billion passengers used various forms of inter-city public transportation in April, down 6.9 percent from the same month last year. That decline comes after a 5.2 percent increase year-on-year during the first three months of this year. Industry experts say the significant decline is an anomaly as numbers are usually stable, only shifting with holidays and peak travel seasons. "There's seldom anything like the current disease that has affected the public transportation industry to such a scale," said Zhu Anping, an analyst with Shenyin & Wanguo Research and Consulting Co Ltd. "Things like airplane accidents and the September 11 terrorist attack in the United States only had a short-term impact on domestic carriers." Airlines are bearing the brunt of the traffic slump as people avoid long-haul trips between cities. In April, about 6 million people traveled by air in China, a 25.7 percent drop from a year earlier. The beginning of this month was supposed to be a peak period for travel due to the May Day holiday, instead it was a very slow period. Domestic airlines handled 344,000 passengers between May 1 and May 6, a decrease of 81.2 percent from last year. "Air carriers used to prepare hundreds of charter flights for tourist groups during long vacations. They were totally canceled this year due to the restrictions on inter-provincial tourism," said Zhu. China shortened its May Day holiday from the usual seven days to five days this year and encouraged people to stay home. Train travel is also down sharply. Altogether 71 million passengers took trains in April, a drop of 14.7 percent from the same period last year. During the first five days of May, trains carried 6.25 million people, a 67 percent plunge year-on-year. Busses haven't been affected as badly, but passenger volume was still down 6.2 percent in April compared with last year. Officials estimate that impact of the severe acute respiratory syndrome on the sector will continue for several months, since university and college students are banned from leaving for their hometowns and almost all tour groups have been canceled. The disease hasn't affected cargo transportation as much as it did passenger flow. According to the report, cargo volume is still growing, but the growth rate is slowing.