'Almost Without Precedent': Airlines Hit Hard by Coronavirus (NYT)

[dalton99a]

Last edited Fri Mar 6, 2020, 06:17 PM - Edit history (1)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/business/coronavirus-airline-industry.html

‘Almost Without Precedent’: Airlines Hit Hard by Coronavirus
The effects could wipe out up to $113 billion in worldwide revenues this year, a trade group said, a new blow to the industry.
By David Gelles and Niraj Chokshi
March 6, 2020, 12:23 a.m. ET

Empty jumbo jets arriving at deserted airports. Masked passengers disinfecting their own seats. Stone-faced airline executives huddling with President Trump.

With the coronavirus outbreak continuing to spread around the globe, the aviation industry is being jolted.

Airline stocks dropped sharply on Thursday as investors reckoned with the prospect of canceled flights, lost sales and substantial reductions in service for months to come. Several carriers — including United Airlines, JetBlue and Lufthansa — announced new route closings in recent days. An industry trade group said the coronavirus could wipe out between $63 billion and $113 billion in worldwide airline revenues this year.

“There are dramatically fewer people flying this week than there were last week,” said Nicholas E. Calio, chief executive of Airlines for America, a trade organization. “Flights are being taken down because people aren’t getting on airplanes.”

The coronavirus has already sent stock markets into convulsions, rattled supply chains and forced companies to dust off emergency response plans. Stocks plunged again on Thursday, with the S&P 500 falling more than 3 percent. But the abrupt decline in global air travel suggests that the economic impacts of the outbreak may be entering a more disruptive phase.

It has been almost 20 years since the aviation industry faced such an existential threat. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, global air travel plummeted, and it took years for airlines to fully recover. Today there are worries that the coronavirus could have a similarly disastrous impact.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. I know, it's terrifying. The hundreds of thousands who've gotten sick,

the tens of thousands who have died.

Oh, wait. It's not even close to those numbers.

Never mind.

[AlexSFCA]

2. probably more, only a fraction being tested

I expect millions infected within two months. We are still in the beginning of this epidemic. Once we get millions of test kits available, things will look differently.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

15. More to the point is that the very vast majority of people have mild or no symptoms.

And the more who get tested and are positive for the virus, and who aren't particularly sick, the lower the fatality rate will be. And it's not as though young healthy people are dropping dead in the street from this.

Yes, if you or someone near and dear to you has the kind of underlying health issues that make this worse or even fatal, then you need to take extra precautions. Which presumably you do all the time anyway, especially during flu season.

[dpibel]

3. Thank god

It's all over and the currently existing numbers are the only numbers we need to worry about.

Oh, wait. It's not.

Never mind.

[uppityperson]

4. Considering they'd tested less than 500 people a couple days ago,could be

On of those in the facility in WA died wks ago. There are probably others who just haven't been tested yet.

And yes, around the world there have been that many tested positive and died.

Mock all you want, but there's categories of people who are in danger.

[uppityperson]

5. "Only" 98,437 confirmed cases with "only"3387 deaths. Pshaw??? Bah

Coronavirus Cases:
98,437

Deaths:
3,387
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

[uponit7771]

7. You understand it just started two months ago right?

[redwitch]

9. My husband has asthma and heart issues.

He’s 66. Yeah, I am worried.

[dewsgirl]

6. I keep thinking, the vast majority of flight attendants and

their families have to already have it, I wonder if there is a chart that has statistics of the sick leave/prior and present of those in the air travel industry?

[A HERETIC I AM]

8. I flew from Jacksonville, FL to Bakersfield, CA on Thursday....

With the connection in Dallas.

Both flights were nearly full and I saw one person wearing a mask.

1.

And DFW was just as busy as always.

Anecdotal, I admit, but at least my little journey wasn’t affected in the least.

[central scrutinizer]

10. I'm flying Delta from Portland to Tokyo on Monday

There used to be daily flights but they are reducing the schedule to three flights per week, starting Saturday. This was announced only a couple of days ago. Luckily, the Monday flight was one of the days they kept. People on other flights that were abruptly canceled are going to have to scramble to change their plans, if they decide to go at all. This is going to cost them a lot in customer loyalty.

[uponit7771]

11. SNA to DFW flight with less than 40 people on it, the airlines are being hit hard

[Baitball Blogger]

12. How do you disinfect a cloth seat?

[cally]

13. I often get sick on flights

They don’t clean well! I don’t want to fly but I have a family wedding soon

[Johnny2X2X]

14. I won't fly right now

Sorry, but I have zero faith in the current government to protect anyone or anything.

Imagine that, a party who's whole mantra the last few decades has been that government can't do anything right now is running the government that can't do anything right. Shocking.

[StarryNite]

16. All the things that will be affected...

that you don't initially think about. Like a huge, growing web. This is frightening on so many levels.

[dalton99a]

18. +1. The travel slowdown/restrictions will have wide impact

"It's vital. If you measure the entirely of the impact of travel, it is bigger than any other industry around the world. No other industry can say it supports 1 in 10 jobs," said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, a leading research firm that follows the industry. His firm produced the data on the industry's global revenue and employment, the latter for the World Travel and Tourism Council.

"It's partly because it's such a diverse industry. It includes a lot of things you don't think of," said Sacks. "Besides airlines and hotels, it's part of retail, part of restaurants, parts of technology."

So far there has not been deep job cuts announced in the travel industry. But millions of workers could lose their jobs, or have their hours cut, if the demand for travel continues to be depressed. That is especially true for lower paid service jobs such as housekeeping at hotels and waiters and waitresses at restaurants.

And as those workers are forced to cut back their own spending, the impact of the slowdown will ripple through the broader economy.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/02/29/business/travel-industry-coronavirus-economic-impact/index.html

[llmart]

17. I'm flying in two weeks for a vacation in a warm climate.

I'm hoping the plane will be half-empty and that they'll give me a free upgrade from cattle car to first class. Just once I want to sit in a seat where my knees don't hit the seat in front of me. I'm only 5'3" and a small woman, and I've always felt sorry for bigger people who have to sit in those seats. Where on earth do they put their legs?

[DFW]

19. My wife is stuck in Israel because European Airlines are no longer allowed to fly in there

Including, unfortunately, Austrian Airlines, the air line on which she flew in. El Al is apparently looking to bus passengers trying to get home into "relatively" safe airports, like Istanbul or Brussels, and maybe she can get home from there.

Meanwhile, Eurowings (otherwise known as Lufthansa Light, making you pay extra for everything but the safety announcements) just informed me that my morning flight down to Barcelona on Wednesday was canceled, but they are "happy" to inform me that I am rebooked on the evening flight. The fact that the only reason I am going down there that day is because I have two pre-noon appointments in Barcelona makes me a lot less happy than they are.