Pandemic continues to batter industry

All aspects of travel, road, rail and air, have been transformed during the pandemic. Many hotels remain vacant.

• JetBlue Airways swung to a $268 million loss in the first quarter. It made a $42 million quarterly profit last year. Revenue slumped 15 percent. The New York carrier said Thursday that after negotiations with Airbus, it cut $1.1 billion in aircraft expenses through 2022. It’s taking $936 million in federal relief and has applied for another $1.1 billion in loans from the U.S. Treasury.

• Air France-KLM suffered a first-quarter loss of 1.8 billion euros, but predicts the second quarter will be far worse, with traffic down 95 percent. The airlines, which have already won billions of euros in bailouts from the French and Dutch governments, expect passenger numbers will still likely be down 80 percent in the third quarter.

• The nation’s biggest union of airline pilots is pushing for federal regulations covering the cleaning of airplanes. Joe DePete, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, said there is a patchwork across the industry, with some airlines doing a good job while “others aren’t doing so well.” The union says three of its members have died and more than 300 pilots have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19.

• About 60 percent of Hilton hotels worldwide — or around 950 properties — have suspended operations. However, global occupancy levels, which slumped to 13 percent in March, have reached 23 percent. Nearly all of the 150 hotels closed in China during the height of the pandemic have reopened, and Hilton says occupancy reached 50 percent last weekend during the May Day holiday.