The pandemic and the airlines
Airlines are starting to see a slight rise in bookings, but air travel remains down about 90%, prompting speculation about which carriers might go under.
JetBlue Airways CEO Robin Hayes admits he doesn’t know how quickly air travel will recover from the coronavirus outbreak, and no matter what, his will be a smaller airline.
Hayes, however, is confident that all large airlines in the U.S. will survive. He talked recently with The Associated Press about making passengers feel safe while flying, and how COVID-19 will bring permanent changes to the airline business.
How are bookings now?
The low point in terms of demand was around the middle of April when the U.S. domestic air system was carrying about 2% to 4% of what they normally carry. In the last four weeks, that sort of moved up to I’d say between 9% to 10%, but still a tiny fraction of what we had expected it to be. So we are still in a very critically grave situation. We have seen that in the last week or so that bookings have outpaced cancellations for the first time.
How much flying will JetBlue do in June and July?
June actually we are going to be flying about 25% to 30% of our normal schedule. We haven’t taken it beyond June yet, but obviously the summer will be significantly less flights than last summer.
What are you doing to make people comfortable about flying?
(We are) making sure our crew members are healthy when they come to work. Secondly, really focusing on clean air and surfaces, for example, cleaning and sanitizing and disinfecting airplanes frequently. Thirdly, more space and fewer touch points . ... We committed that no one will sit next to you on an airplane that you don’t know or aren’t traveling with through to July 6.
How long can you keep blocking lots of seats?
It’s not sustainable for an extended period of time, but it’s important for people right now. The break-even load factor (or occupancy level) for an airline is usually around 75% to 80%. My view is that once people fly and they see all the things that we’ve put in place it will feel to them no different than a trip to the grocery store or something else that they may be doing, and they get more comfortable with it.
The CEO of Boeing says that most likely a major U.S. airline will go out of business later this year. Is he right?
No one knows for sure because no one knows how long this is going to go on for. If we continue on this L-shaped recovery that we’re planning for, I don’t foresee any U.S. airlines going into bankruptcy. The CARES Act gives the U.S. airline industry time to wait for the recovery and come out the other side.