The coronavirus pandemic has caused major travel bans across the world, as fewer people are willing to travel during these troubling times. Pakistan’s federal minister for aviation, Ghulam Sarwar Khan, said that the coronavirus has caused immense losses in the airline industry, including Pakistan International Airlines and the Civil Aviation Authority of the country taking a hit of over $15 million in losses.
Khan further added,
“During the last one month, PIA lost 1.2 billion rupees ($7.6 m) due to suspension of flights while the CAA has also faced a 1.2 billion rupees ($7.6 m) last week.”
In order to contain the virus and stop it from spreading many countries have closed their borders and stopped land and air travel with the most affected nations. Pakistan has already halted its flights to China, Iran, Qatar and Italy due to the coronavirus outbreak.
International Airlines Facing Losses:
Global airlines stand to lose $113 billion in sales if the pandemic continues according to the International Air Transport Association. IATA said airlines could lose 19% of their business if the virus isn’t contained soon.
Flybe Airlines
Europe’s largest airline suffered collapse amidst the coronavirus outbreak after travel declined massively. The airline has gone out of business after serving passengers for over 4 decades. The impact of the coronavirus on flight bookings was the last straw for the Europe based airline which operates almost 40% of UK domestic flights.
American Airlines (AAL)
The world’s largest airline is canceling international flights due to the drop in demand as mentioned by their CEO Doug Parker. The AAL will reduce its international capacity by 75% on a year over year basis and this will result in the airline parking almost its entire wide-body fleet. The domestic capacity for April will reduce by 20% and it forecasts the domestic capacity of May to fall by 30%.
United Airlines
United said it would suspend flights to London from Houston and Denver starting Monday. The airline expects to fly three daily flights to London and one daily flight to Dublin through April
Germany’s Lufthansa (DLAKF)
The airline has canceled over 7,100 flights for Europe in March, mostly those having routes within Germany or on the way to Italy. This is about 25% of its total capacity. The airline has also decided to ground 150 of its Boeing 770 Aircraft. The German flagship carrier is considering a request for state aid.
Delta Airlines
Delta Airlines Chief Executive, Ed Bastian spoke to the staff on Friday saying the firm would be cutting flights by 40% over the next few months and ground 300 aircraft. They would also reduce spending by $2 bn.
Norwegian Air
The Norwegian carrier is set to cancel 4,000 of its flights and will temporarily lay off about half of its staff due to the coronavirus outbreak. The airline mentions it has “weeks not months to avoid collapse”
KLM
The Dutch airline plans to slash uptown 2000 jobs, resulting in massive unemployment and cutting back staff hours by one-third. It will also be asking for government support to overcome this crisis.
Southwest Airlines
The American low-cost pioneer warned on Thursday of a $300m loss during the first quarter due to “a significant decline in customer demand, as well as an increase in trip cancellations.”
It has been seen that the airlines with the majority flights to the countries affected most by the outbreak have been facing the biggest losses. Shares have plummeted after flights have been discontinued and the rise of unemployed staff continues as the pandemic disrupts global travel on a massive scale.
Have you been affected by the airline industry slump? Let us know in the comments below.
Follow Brandsynario for the latest news and updates.