The new cuts in weekly flights will represent 13.6 percent of total capacity in terms of available seat kilometres (miles), up from 9.4 percent, said SIA, one of Asia's most profitable carriers.

The airline will monitor the situation and "make adjustments to match capacity with demand where necessary," SIA said.

"In response to softening demand due to the war in Iraq and the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Singapore Airlines will be implementing further service reductions in the coming weeks," SIA said in a statement.

"Combined with those announced in March, this increases the number of cuts to 125 services per week, or 13.6 percent of capacity in terms of available seat kilometres," it said.

On March 20, SIA said it was cutting 65 flight services per week.

Flights to Hong Kong, which is hard hit by the killer SARS disease, will be reduced to 26 from 41 per week. Weekly services to Guangzhou will be cut to five from seven, Hanoi to four from six and Taipei to 16 from 20.

All services to Kaohsiung will be suspended from April 15 and Hiroshima from April 9 to May 31.

Plans to launch thrice-weekly services to Bangalore, India, originally planned for May 1, will be deferred to June 12.

Frequencies will also be reduced to Los Angeles and New York in the United States and Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Manchester in Europe.

"SIA will be contacting affected passengers shortly to provide details of the changes and assist them in rearranging travel plans," it said.

The double whammy of SARS and the Iraq war, which by all indications could take longer than expected, are expected to hammer East Asian economies, with the aviation and tourism sectors among the hardest hit, analysts said.

SARS, which manifests itself as an unusual form of pneumonia, has killed dozens of people and infected nearly 2,000 others worldwide. Hong Kong and China account for most of the SARS fatalities and infections.

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