UNITED CUTS U.S. FLYING, CITES VIRUS
United Airlines will reduce flights, freeze hiring and ask employees to volunteer for unpaid leave as the airline struggles with weak demand for travel because of the new virus outbreak.
United said Wednesday that starting in April it will reduce passenger-carrying capacity 20 percent on international routes and 10 percent in the U.S. — the first airline to cut domestic f lying. United officials said they will temporarily ground an unspecified number of planes.
The moves by United are the clearest sign yet of the financial harm to U.S. airlines from the virus, which has already led them to suspend flights to China and reduce service to other countries.
United’s decision to reduce flying came shortly after Germany’s Lufthansa announced it would park 150 planes because of falling demand.
Airline bookings have slumped as the outbreak has spread beyond China to the U.S. and dozens of other countries. Some large corporations have banned or limited employee travel, and a few large business conferences have been canceled.
At United, the deepest reductions in flying will be between the U.S. and Asia — a cut of 50 percent. United, like Delta and American, suspended service to mainland China and Hong Kong last month. United will also chop 10 percent from its schedule between the U.S. and Europe, 5 percent to Latin America.
United officials said they don’t plan to abandon service to any U.S. cities, but they will eliminate some routes as part of the 10 percent cut in the April schedule for domestic service. For example, the airline will stop flying from Chicago to Eugene, Ore., but it will continue to serve Eugene from San Francisco and Denver.
United’s top executives said they expect those reductions to extend into May, but they have not determined what to do after that — it will depend on bookings over the next few weeks.
Koenig writes for The Associated Press.