The new cuts in weekly flights will represent 125 services a week or 13.6 percent of total capacity, a rise from earlier cuts to 9.4 percent of capacity, said SIA, one of Asia's most profitable carriers.

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

"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.

On March 20, the airline said it was cutting 65 flight services a week.

Following the latest announcement, flights to Hong Kong, which has been badly hit by the killer SARS disease, will be reduced to 26 from 41 a week.

Weekly services to Guangzhou -- the capital of China's Guangdong province where SARS is believed to have originated -- 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.

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.

Singapore Airlines shares closed the morning session five cents higher at 8.90 Singapore dollars.

Kim Eng Securities research head Seah Hiang Hong said he had anticipated the new capacity reductions as the SARS outbreak has softened travel demand across destinations hit by the health scare.

"SARS will do more damage than the Iraq war," Seah said, pointing out that more than 50 percent of SIA's traffic is in Asia.

WAR.WIRE