Branson ponders bird flu action
A human bird flu pandemic could ground up to 70 percent of aircraft, Virgin Group boss Richard Branson said on Thursday, according to a Reuters report.
“You’re just going to have to be strong enough to keep your head down for a year,” the entrepreneur behind Virgin Atlantic Airways and other carriers told business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
“If it happens, an airline is going to have 50 percent of its planes grounded, maybe more — 60, 70 percent,” he said. The only positive would be a fall in fuel costs: “It will certainly bring down oil prices with a thump.”
Air travel is expected to be in the frontline should the H5N1 strain of bird flu become easily transmitted between people.
Air travel was crucial in spreading the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, virus around Asia and to Canada in 2003.
“Statistically, there is about a 6 percent chance that in any one year of the next 10 years this becomes a person-to-person problem, and we just have to hope it is not this year,” Branson said.
Virgin has purchased enough doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu for all airline employees at the group in an attempt to protect them in the event of a pandemic.
Graham Muldoon
Vegas’s Billion-Dollar Secrets – What They Don’t Want Tourists to Know
Visit Florida’s New CEO Bryan Griffin Shares His Vision for State Tourism with Graham
Chicago’s Tourism Renaissance: Graham Interviews Kristin Reynolds of Choose Chicago
Graham Talks with Cassandra McCauley of MMGY NextFactor About the Latest Industry Research
Destination International’s Andreas Weissenborn: Research, Advocacy, and Destination Impact
Graham and Don Welsh Discuss the Success of Destinations International’s Annual Conference
Graham and CEO Andre Kiwitz on Ventura Travel’s UK Move and Recruitment for the Role
Brett Laiken and Graham Discuss Florida’s Tourism Momentum and Global Appeal
Graham and Elliot Ferguson on Positioning DC as a Cultural and Inclusive Global Destination
Graham Talks to Fraser Last About His England-to-Ireland Trek for Mental Health Awareness
Kathy Nelson Tells Graham About the Honour of Hosting the World Cup and Kansas City’s Future
Graham McKenzie on Sir Richie Richardson’s Dual Passion for Golf and His Homeland, Antigua
ADS PRO 
Phocuswright reveals the world's largest travel markets in volume in 2025
Higher departure tax and visa cost, e-arrival card: Japan unleashes the fiscal weapon against tourists
Cyclone in Sri Lanka had limited effect on tourism in contrary to media reports
Singapore to forbid entry to undesirable travelers with new no-boarding directive
Euromonitor International unveils world’s top 100 city destinations for 2025