After ten bountiful years, US airlines started 2020 with renewed optimism that the worst of the Boeing 737 MAX grounding was over. Yet barely two months into the new year, the COVID-19 crisis placed another dark cloud over the industry’s future, as Chris Sloan reports from Florida.
THE EMERGENCE of the coronavirus put the US aviation sector into a tailspin almost overnight. There is no known immunity to COVID-19 for humans and commercial aviation is no different, becoming the first of many industries in the country to be devastated by this unprecedented medical disaster.
International travel restrictions, which were expanding on a daily basis, along with a fear of contracting the virus on planes, resulted in a complete collapse in demand.
Scott Kirby, United Airline s president and incoming CEO, sounded an early warning by admitting that load factors were averaging 20-30%. In an internal memo, American Airlines president Robert Isom didn’t mince his words: “[We are] in the fight of our lives”. Other airline CEOs issued similar dire warnings. On March 20, shortly after securing a $2.6bn loan for Delta Airlines, CEO Ed Bastian commented: “The speed of the demand fall-off is unlike anything we’ve seen – …
