Hong Kong-Vegas flights suspended due to war

Richard N. Velotta and Judy Odierna

Thursday, March 20, 2003 | 11:22 a.m.

Singapore Airlines, which inaugurated nonstop service between Las Vegas and Hong Kong last summer, will suspend its twice-a-week flights for two months beginning in April because of low demand anticipated with the outbreak of war in Iraq.

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority also suspended its advertising promotion of Las Vegas for a week, anticipating that TV viewers will be focused on war coverage.

But snow in Colorado and Wyoming concerned travelers at McCarran International Airport this morning more than the start of a war half of a world away.

"Our only concern is getting home," Matthew Cooper, 23, Lexington, Kentucky. "Everything is more messed up because of the weather."

Colorado's worst blizzard in nearly a century dumped up to 7 feet of snow there and in Wyoming.

About 3,700 passengers waited for Denver International Airport to reopen as the snow tapered off. Airport officials said they expected to open one runway by 11 this morning.

Las Vegas airport spokeswoman Hilarie Grey agreed that the weather was a greater factor than the war in Iraq.

"We found that there's not so much a fear of flying they just don't want to get stuck," she said.

But the beginning of President Bush's move to disarm Iraq was felt at the airport. Cars, including limousines and taxis were being searched, Grey said.

Metro Police and airport security were stepping up patrols at the airport to provide higher law enforcement visibility. Security lines were long this morning, but Grey said that volume at the airport was normal for a Thursday, a generally busy day.

Despite the war, the airport experienced a normal morning today, Grey said, just as the airport was normally quiet Wednesday night after Bush's speech.

"There wasn't an indication of an unusual rush of people out of town," Grey said.

Many travelers echoed Grey's observation.

Jennifer Smith, 21 and Ashley Cain, 22, from Texas were both ready to go home from their trip to Las Vegas.

"I have faith in our president," Smith said. "I'm not scared."

"There's enough security to where I don't see a problem," Cain said. "I feel safe."

Elizabeth Masaki, 79, of Hawaii, was not concerned about traveling with the war going on.

"We already made plans and our granddaughter is getting married Vegas, so we're here," she said.

Jim Petersen, 51, from Minnesota, also had no concerns. "I wouldn't want to be flying overseas, but I have no problem flying here," he said.

At the Las Vegas Auto Raceway Food and Spirits bar in the airport, Travis Faulds, 33, of Michigan, was waiting for a friend coming in from Florida, watching reports of renewed shooting this morning on CNN. "I don't think it will affect us here at this point in time," he said.

"The chances are high that something will happen in the U.S., but I think they will try to take out political targets in D.C. or New York, not Las Vegas," he said.

"In my mind, I'm not going to let it detract me from traveling and living my life."

In the meantime, Singapore's move suspending Las Vegas flights caught tourism officials and executives at McCarran International Airport by surprise.

"We're disappointed," said Rob Powers, a spokesman for LVCVA. "This pretty much caught us by surprise. We're confident it will be a temporary situation because the partnership between Las Vegas and Singapore Airlines is a good one and will continue to work."

"It came as a complete surprise to us," added Grey.

Representatives of Singapore Airlines said today that it is suspending 65 weekly flights, including all of its service to Las Vegas and Chicago, due to "softening demand" from the war.

Singapore spokesman James Boyd said the airline's current plan is to suspend the flights from April 7 through May 31. That means the last nonstop flight from Hong Kong would arrive in Las Vegas April 7 because of the schedule.

Boyd said that plan could change, depending on what occurs in Iraq.

Singapore began Boeing 777 service from Hong Kong in August, bringing an average 285 seats per flight to the Las Vegas market. While Singapore officials said they were working to increase demand in the market, especially for Nevadans traveling to Southeast Asia, they have been satisfied with the number of seats sold on the route.

No other major airlines are planning service reductions to and from Las Vegas, and demand has held steady for the major carriers serving the market.

Only United Airlines, the third-busiest carrier at McCarran, reported any flight cancellations, but those were the result of an airport-closing snowstorm in Denver. Operations to and from Denver International Airport were scheduled to resume at noon today.

The two largest carriers serving McCarran -- Dallas-based Southwest Airlines and Tempe, Ariz.-based America West -- have no plans to curtail flights, but both are keeping watch on how ticket demand is affected by the war in Iraq.

"We monitor demand and yields on a regular basis all the time," said Janice Monahan, spokeswoman for America West.

Most major airlines cut flights and laid off employees following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Southwest, which is McCarran's busiest airline with an average of 166 flights a day, didn't cut its schedule or lay off employees in response to the attacks.

"But we'll continue to watch what happens on a daily basis," said Southwest spokeswoman Angela Vargo.

Most domestic airlines serving McCarran have enacted ticket change policies to allow customers to make switches in their travel itineraries without charge.

Southwest routinely allows customers to apply funds from unused tickets to the purchase of new reservations and only offers refunds on certain types of tickets.

America West, United and Delta have announced revised ticket change policies and say passengers should call to make itinerary changes.

The LVCVA, which suspended its Las Vegas advertising campaign for a week, said no conventions or trade shows have announced postponements or cancellations so far.

The largest convention scheduled next week is the Nightclub and Bar Convention and Trade Show, which is expected to draw 32,000 people to the Las Vegas Convention Center.

"We've gotten a lot of phone calls about whether we're going to cancel," said Ed Meek, president and chief executive officer of Oxford Publishing Corp., Oxford, Miss., which produces the event. "We're telling them absolutely not."

Other key shows scheduled next week in Las Vegas are the National Association of Pizza Operators' International Pizza Expo, scheduled Tuesday through Thursday at the Las Vegas Convention Center and expecting attendance of around 13,500 people, and the International Security Conference, Wednesday through Friday at the Sands Expo Center, expecting 15,000 people in attendance.

Representatives of those shows could not be reached for comment.

Sun reporter

Jace Radke and the Associated Press contributed to this story.