Impact of the coronavirus crisis on aviation

[Passenger]

Air Antwerp on Twitter: "Taking a long last look at London from our aircraft during its temporarily last visit to the city before it gets tucked in for a sleep of at least 3 weeks. A sad day for us and a sad time for the aviation industry as a whole. But our hearts are warmed by the compassion and support received from partner companies and colleagues. Together we'll weather this storm and we'll be ready to relaunch when the time is right. All of us at Air Antwerp are looking forward to welcoming you on board again... hopefully very soon!"

[sn26567]

Daily review (in addition to the articles published on the homepage and the above posts of our members):

Air New Zealand is suspending its Noumea and Tahiti routes until 30 June 2020 due to travel restrictions.

American Airlines is grounding nearly half of its fleet of 942 aircraft and cancelling 55,000 flights in April 2020. The airline is utilising its currently grounded passenger aircraft to move cargo between the US and Europe.

Avianca says all international operations will be suspended and domestic operations in Colombia will be reduced by 84%, effective 23 March 2020. The fleet will be reduced to 10 aircraft, as 142 are grounded.

Boeing is considering cutting its dividend and possibly laying off workers at its jetliner plants, as the manufacturer grapples with an unprecedented disruption to the global airline industry.

British Airways has told its pilots that they won’t be paid for four weeks: two in April and two in May 2020.

Comair temporarily suspended its regional flights, including Windhoek, Livingstone, Harare, Victoria Falls and Mauritius due to travel restrictions.

Compass Airlines (US) is shutting down operations as demand tumbles.

Fiji Airways will suspend all international flights until the end of May 2020, with the exception of twice-weekly services between Singapore and Nadi. Fiji Link flights will continue.

Grupo Aeromexico has grounded 40 aircraft in its fleet due to reduced demand by the outbreak of coronavirus.

Hawaiian Airlines expects March 2020 revenue to be lower by at least 25%, which equates to approximately US$2 million less per day. The Company expects April 2020 revenue to be lower by over 50%. Layoffs may be required.

HK Express will suspend all flight operations on a short-term basis starting from 23 March until 30 April 2020 inclusive, in light of the significant drop in travel demand as a result of the ongoing pandemic.

I Fly has suspended all its international flights from 20 March 2020 due to travel restrictions.

Indigo Partners says airlines hit hard by the travel restrictions imposed as a result of the coronavirus pandemic may soon present buying opportunities for investors.

IndiGo has grounded about 16 planes out of its total fleet of 260 aircraft. The airline is also planning to ask its employees to take 10-20% salary cuts as it grapples with the impact of coronavirus.

LATAM Airlines Group will cut pay to its 43,000-strong workforce by 50% for three months due to economic fallout from the coronavirus outbreak.

Malindo Air suspends International service from 18 March t0 31 March 2020.

Skymark Airlines is cancelling its sole International route from Tokyo Narita to Saipan service from 26 March to 10 May 2020.

Swoop is suspending all international and transborder flights on 22 March until 31 May 2020.

TAME (has suspended all scheduled operations for 2-week period, from 17 March until 05 April 2020.

Volotea suspends its operations until 08 April 2020 to government restrictions.

India to ban all international flights to India for a week starting 22 March 2020, as one of the measures enacted to prevent mass coronavirus outbreak.

Norway offers a loan guarantee for its airlines in the amount of €500 million. Norwegian will get €250 million, Wideroe will get €3.4 million a month, while SAS and other companies will get €125million each. Norwegian's portion carries some stipulations.

Saudi Arabia will suspend all domestic flights for 14 days in the middle of the coronavirus outbreaks.

UK government has drafted in City bankers to scrutinise the finances of Britain’s biggest airlines as they put the finishing touches to a multi-billion pound rescue plan.

US President Donald Trump backed the idea of the government taking equity stakes as part of corporate rescue packages, with airlines to receive loans only.

[globetrotter]

Pakistan is suspending international flights for two weeks, only aircraft belong to local carriers stranded abroad will be allowed to return, also cargo services and diplomatic charters are allowed to operate.

[Luke777]

Should we not better state in reverse: Impact of Aviation on Corona ??

https://www.flightradar24.com/50.27,3.43/5

[Passenger]

Transavia (NL) to cancel all flights from 23 March until 5 April...

Extended til 15th April. Source: Twitter.

[globetrotter]

Aegean operated a charter to Mumbai, possibly a repatriation flight for Greek tourists standed in India or Indian tourists returning home. https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/sx-dnd

[SR20]

Should we not better state in reverse: Impact of Aviation on Corona ??

https://www.flightradar24.com/50.27,3.43/5

Aviation and people travelling in general is clearly responsible of the corona spread. No doubt about it !

[globetrotter]

Yes its seems so hypocritical with whole countries in lockdown yet planes still prancing around with no care, some airlines that had announced drastic route cuts still flying to places that were part of the cut, also airlines from highly infected countries maintainng services to places that have reportedly banned their nationals.

[Homo Aeroportus]

Yes its seems so hypocritical with whole countries in lockdown yet planes still prancing around with no care, some airlines that had announced drastic route cuts still flying to places that were part of the cut, also airlines from highly infected countries maintainng services to places that have reportedly banned their nationals.

Looking at FR24, LPA Las Palmas airport in Gran Canaria is currently having 62 flights, combined in- and out-bound.

I guess that they are rescue flights, coming in empty to pick up stranded travelers.

H.A.

[Bracebrace]

Yes its seems so hypocritical with whole countries in lockdown yet planes still prancing around with no care, some airlines that had announced drastic route cuts still flying to places that were part of the cut, also airlines from highly infected countries maintainng services to places that have reportedly banned their nationals.

Can't repeat enough: when you arrive in Hong Kong, you have body temperature scanning for everybody (they learned from SARS). From the moment it was clear it was a worldwide threat, this should have been installed in all major airports. I hope this will happen in the future. Look at Hong Kong now...

https://www.info.gov.hk/info/sars/en/bo ... ontrol.htm

[SR20]

Just a thought here.

Nobody speaks about full cargo airlines. I guess they must see a huge rise in their activities ! Don't you think that we could see in the near future joint-ventures or business mergers between pax and full cargo airlines ? For instance Fed-Ex and a major pax carrier in USA ? Or ASL and one european major ? I read somewhere that American was considering flying her pax B777 just for freight operations.

Companies having both a pax sector and a cargo sector might be less impacted by this crisis (Qatar, Ethiopian, Emirates, Icelandair...)
Again, just a thought running through my mind !

[Luke777]

I agree about cargo, but what percentage actually on FR24 is freight ?? we cannot sit together with non relatives in our car, but inside planes we can sit with 150 ?? Arrivals at Brussels still without any screening, even hundreds of passengers out of highly infected zones as spain can come in and spread and devide ??

[carllegein]

We at The Aviation Factory can get you aircraft where pax sit at least 1,5 meters from each other, think of Falcon 7X or Gulf

[Luke777]

OK Carllegein but only for the happy few... but can anybody explain me this situation, or am i seeing this wrong ? In that case sorry. But every government in europe has strict rules, is locking down cities, streets, people cannot meet with more then 2, we cannot drive in cars with more then 3 non relatives, etc... but the planes keep on prancing all over europe, hundreds of people sitting together at 30cm, coming in and out airports, this is 200% contradictive with all of the present rules ! I wonder what opinion the medical staff in hospitals have about these facts ?

[Acid-drop]

The checks at landing at up to the belgian standards im afraid.

[Bracebrace]

There is already a lot of cooperation between pax airlines and freight business, and many types have been tried before. Between continents their is already a lot of freight transported by passenger airlines. Because these flights have stopped, prices have sky-rocketed, so yes pure freighter airlines should be doing golden business now...

however...

Crews sleep outstation in hotels during the day, you can imagine the consequences of politics limiting access to a country (usually airlines crews are exempted), closing business (taxi, restaurants), closing hotels (or limited to some hotels with or without room service),...

[Ozzie1969]

Can you imagine the rush on plane tickets once this corona crisis is officially over and done with ?

[Poiu]

Can you imagine the rush on plane tickets once this corona crisis is officially over and done with ?

I don’t think so, many people are unemployed, many businesses will go bankrupt or be short on cash at best, businessmen will have months to get used to other means of communication.
It will take a year, if not more, before, what is leftover of aviation starts recovering.

[sn26567]

About passenger aircraft used to carry freight: Two Austrian Airlines Boeing 777-200ER aircraft are currently en route to Xiamen in China in order to collect medical equipment for Austria: flights AUA6021 (OE-LPC) and AUA6023 (OE-LPD).

[Poiu]

Should we not better state in reverse: Impact of Aviation on Corona ??

Indeed, three weeks ago I was shot down in fire on this forum for pointing out that Brussels Airlines was putting passengers in aircraft without fresh air despite EASA recommendations.