The health officer at the Delhi Airport has issued a letter to the Airlines Operators' Committee, the apex body of domestic and global carriers, asking it to send staff dealing with passengers for training sessions to be conducted by medical experts.

"We want to make sure the virus does not enter the country. The training sessions will be conducted on five consecutive days to avoid any disruption in airline schedules. We would like to begin the exercise as soon as possible," said S K Singh, health officer at the Delhi airport.

The programme is being conducted under the aegis of the health ministry and the experts will be drawn from the directorate of health services. Passengers disembarking at the airport may also be asked to fill in forms stating their medical status.

"We have sent the proposal to the ministry of health and have sought a clearance from the ministry of home affairs," said Singh.

The Delhi airport has posted medical experts in every immigration counter to screen passengers. Immigration officers have also been trained to identify symptoms.

The dreaded disease has resulted in a 15-20 per cent drop in outbound traffic to South-East Asia from India. Travel agents say cancellations have shot up to as much as 50 per cent in the region.

Keeping in view the low passenger traffic, Air-India has suspended one flight each on the Delhi-Hong Kong and Delhi-Bangkok sectors in March.

Though no other airline is planning to cancel operations, Thai Airways has seen a perceptible dip in traffic. Business travel from the United States and Europe has been particularly affected.

According to Thai Airways executives, the airline has seen a significant dip in passenger traffic from Thailand to Singapore and Hong Kong.

Cathay Pacific executives said though there had been some cancellations, business "remained strong out of India". Malaysia Airlines is also facing a problem with a 2-3 per cent drop in traffic from India.

The SARS) scare has also prompted India Inc to cancel scheduled meetings in Singapore and Hong Kong. Ballarpur Industries, for example, was scheduled to hold the annual conference of its dealers in Hong Kong from April 1. It has now decided to hold the meeting some time in May.

Also, the finance department of the company had planned to hold its conference in Singapore in the last week of March. The venue of the meeting has been shifted to Kuala Lumpur.

PricewaterhouseCoopers has also issued an advisory to its people asking them not to travel to the infected countries. Ranbaxy has cautioned its people against travelling to Singapore, Hong Kong and China.