Several U.S. carriers, including American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, are scrapping flights as the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak prompts a dramatic decline in travel demand.
Delta will trim domestic capacity by as much as 15 percent and pare international capacity by 20-25 percent.
Other cost reduction initiatives include instituting a company-wide hiring freeze, offering voluntary leave options, parking aircraft and evaluating early retirements of older aircraft, the airline announced on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, American will reduce flights within the U.S. by 7.5 percent in April and trim foreign service for the summer peak by 10 percent, including a 55 percent reduction in trans-Pacific capacity.
"In the weeks since COVID-19 emerged, Delta people have risen to the challenge, taking every possible action to take care of and protect our customers during a stressful time," said Delta CEO Ed Bastian, in a statement. "As the virus has spread, we have seen a decline in demand across all entities, and we are taking decisive action to also protect Delta's financial position. As a result, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision to immediately reduce capacity and are implementing cost reductions and cash flow initiatives across the organization."
JetBlue is also reducing its schedule by 5 percent amid the slump and last week, Hawaiian Airlines announced that it will suspend flights between Hawaii and Tokyo between March 28 and April 29 due to slowing demand.
"Japan is a vitally important market for our airline, and we have been looking forward to launching our third nonstop flight between Honolulu and Haneda, which offers more convenient connecting times for our guests," said Peter Ingram, president and CEO at Hawaiian Airlines, in a statement. "Unfortunately, the spread of COVID-19 beyond Asia has diminished near-term global travel demand, so we are balancing some of our Haneda capacity by suspending for about a month our hybrid service between Haneda and Honolulu and Kona."
Those carriers aren't alone in implementing new strategies to reduce costs.
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly announced he will be taking a 10 percent pay cut amid an "alarming" drop in flight bookings. The low-cost carrier also launched an enhanced cleaning program this month.
United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz and President Scott Kirby will both give up their base salaries through the end of June to assist with cost-cutting measures, the company confirmed in an SEC filing via Fox Business.
In addition to their own bottom line, airlines are looking out for travelers as well. For example, Frontier Airlines has issued a change/cancel fee waiver for new bookings through the end of March. For tickets issued March 10 through March 31, 2020, customers will be allowed to make a one-time change to their itinerary without penalty.
Alaska Airlines is also offering flexible travel options for customers, announcing Monday that it will waive change or cancellation fees for travel through the end of March regardless of purchase date and eliminate change or cancellation fees for new tickets purchased between February 27 and March 31, 2020.
Spirit Airlines is another domestic carrier offering travelers added flexibility. "Since late January, we've been offering flexible travel options to our guests who reach out with concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus, and guests who have travel concerns due to COVID-19 are eligible to make a one-time free modification (fare difference applies) by contacting Spirit Guest Care," the airline said in a statement to TravelPulse. "We will continue to monitor the situation, comply with federal and international requirements, and follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines. Our guests are welcome to reach out to us any time if they have questions."
Earlier this month, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that the aviation industry could lose as much as $113 billion in revenue as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.
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