Tough times for the airlines, and it’s not getting better as more cases of swine flu are cropping up – plus the first death in the U.S. has now been reported.

I did a quick survey of some of the bigger U.S. airlines and did a check of the websites, and so far, none of them are cancelling flights – or as Tim Smith at American Airlines put it, “not at this time.”

Still – businesses are cancelling or putting off travel. According to Reuters, Chemicals maker DuPont Co has suspended travel to and from Mexico until May 6^th, Finland’s Nokia of mobile phone fame is saying, postpone all nonessential travel from and to Mexico, and auto-parts maker the Denso Corp, said it has recommended that the families of its expatriate staff in Mexico temporarily return to Japan.

The list goes on: organizations as diverse as the Moline-based Deer & Co. and the University of Arizona are saying recommending no non-essential travel to Mexico.

As I said, tough times for the airlines. Let’s see, first the soaring gas crisis, then the economic meltdown, now a global health emergency – give the airlines credit for surviving, and may it continue.