With their attentions focused on staunching massive losses at home, U.S. airlines are depending more than ever on Asian partners to serve the needs of passengers crossing the Pacific. The downturn in travel that accelerated rapidly after Sept. 11 took a particularly heavy toll on trans-Pacific air traffic. Airline passengers, particularly from the U.S. and Japan, avoided the long flights, both because of new security fears and because the spreading economic slowdown drained corporate and personal budgets.
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