With the demand for travel at an all-time low thanks to stay-at-home directives and severe travel restrictions, United Airlines on Thursday put the industry's financial losses into a stark perspective.
According to the aviation blog The Points Guy, which had privy to view a virtual town hall held by the carrier, United is losing "over $100 million a day" due to the impact of the coronavirus global pandemic, United president Scott Kirby said.
Kirby conducted the town hall along with current CEO Oscar Munoz, who is stepping down in favor of Kirby later this year.
As The Points Guy pointed out, United cut almost 70 percent of its schedule in April with further cuts likely for May-as all airlines have. In fact, predictions going forward are dire. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) said they expect airlines to lose a collective $61 billion in the second quarter of this year (April, May and June).
United said it will pursue some of the $25 billion in grants available for employee compensation from the U.S. government stimulus package, as well as consider whether to apply for some of the $25 billion in loans. But this is all uncharted territory for the industry, even after the financial devastation from the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"One of the lessons from this is, our stress test from 9/11 wasn't stressful enough," Kirby said in reference to United's preparations and need for cash to keep operating.
United has not decided whether to permanently retire any jets as a result of the coronavirus, according to The Points Guy.
"If we want to emerge stronger, if we want to emerge the world's leading airline on the other side of this, we have to have flexibility," he said.
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