Dragonair learns from Sars

The spread of Sars earlier this year nearly brought Asia’s airline industry to its knees. Dragonair’s chief financial officer, Francis Wai, talks about the lessons the company has learned. Nick Sawyer reports

When the first publicised cases of a previously unheard of disease dubbed Sars – or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome – emerged in Hong Kong in February, few could have guessed that it marked the beginnings of a virus that would sweep across the globe, causing hundreds of deaths and wiping billions of dollars off the GDP of those countries worst affected.

Unprecedented warnings issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in April and May advising against travel to Hong