Air Tahiti have changed their flights from CDG_LAX_PPT to go via Guadeloupe in the West indies to avoid the USA - where there's a will ..................

As all are aware, plenty of airlines have stated that they will be suspending operations for maybe 2 weeks, or they plan to ground maybe 75% of their fleet for a month
I realise that airlines are almost all seeing very negative cashflow, so are desperate not to lose any more cash / working capital from their bank accounts than absolutely necessary - so no airline will say "we are suspending ops for 3 months" when they could just suspend for 2 weeks and then keep adding a week at a time incremenetally over the next few months

Does anyone have any thoughts as to when flight operations might return to being at least two thirds of what they were for the equivalent month in 2019 ? September 2020 ? Spring 2021 ? Autumn 2021 (i.e. 18 months after Covid-19 became uncontained and we hopefully have a vaccine) ? Later ?

Don't see much reduction in traffic on FR24. Over 11,000 planes in the sky ATM.

What is your point? Surely you don't doubt the reduction exists? There have been an unprecedented amount of flight cancelations in Europe, all European airlines have frozen recruitment, uprgrades and are forcing unpaid leave or holiday, Ryan Air has cancelled around 85% of it's schedule for example. Didn't I hear that Airbus also paused their prodcution? At my airline we are told we may not even operate in April all together. This is literally the quiet before the storm, **** is about to get much worse in Europe.

I think we will be facing this threat for at least 18 months, however I hope by the summer it will somewhat stabilize, procedures will be in place and people may start flying again. But my humble estimate is that April, May and perhaps June are complete write offs for European aviation.

Best of luck everyone

Think that is a reasonable assumption because it will be close to that.

Issue in the great reboot is lots of refresher time needed.

Will send food parcels............... sorry will send Beer parcels.

Noticeable the Vegan aisle is still fairly full in supermarkets.

Now it's a proper domestic flight.

If you follow FR24's twitter feed you'll find some graphs showing the fall

Ive noted too. Which adds further weight to my theory the toilet roll and pasta hoarders are one and the same as Daily Mail readers and “I want my country back” Brexiteers

We can't do much right now but I'd like to see some thought given on how we'll agree to lift bans etc and get back to "normal".

China & S Korea are effectively in the post infection phase now - you can expect the infection rate in W Europe to start flattening in 4-6 weeks.

Do we start to to lift curbs when our country is no longer infectious? Do we wait until NO country is showing large scale infections?? Do we start be restarting life in our own neighborhood and wait on the rest of the world??

A news item this morning mentioned that Lufthansa is to ground 700 aircraft.

With all these airlines suspending routes, where are they going to find enough space to park up all these Airbuses and Boeings?

Qantas to standdown 20,000 people with immediate effect until at least end of May
Annual bonuses cancelled, Board / Group Manageent will not be paid for 3 months
Annual wage bill of $4.3 Billion so need to save cash now.
Memo was from Alan Joyce

There are large numbers of airports all over DACH which do not normally have much traffic at the best of times. Think of somewhere like Lubeck... I imagine that military air bases could also be used if necessary. Alternatively, if aircraft are expected to be unused for several months, they may be sent to a boneyard somewhere hot and dry

Shorthaul aircraft are all grounded every night anyway - although airlines might need to swap parking spots with each other if they want everything in their home countries. It's only long haul aircraft that need the extra space

No one will be storing aircraft at Luton as it has eye watering stand charges.

Problem is how would you get the crews home again?!

10 aircraft need to go into long term storage ?
Send them all off to Teruel or some other boneyard, at gaps 5 mins apart, from your base. Send an 11th plane (either your own, or charter something smaller if cheaper) to bring those 20 pilots home a few hours later.
Offer the 20 pilots extra money to do this task, and provide them all with hazmat clothing to prevent infection risk

Time to self-isolate?

Does anyone else feel that Coronavirus is achieving in a matter of months what 10-25 years of industry evolution would be seeing - massive consolidation, LCC dominance (when they re-emerge) and the end of domestic and regional flying. It is probably also going to see early retirement of all A380's and 747's. I doubt very much if they will make any sort of come-back.

But once this is over I guess it's going to be a leaner fitter and much more efficient airline industry. Hopefully airlines like Wizz and Ryanair and others will be places for new work and job opportunities.

Expansion of airports may be delayed by a few years I think.

Oh... and Alitalia will still be around.

No, please you just go ahead and kick us as hard as you can in the 'nadgers' - don't hold back!!

https://ec.europa.eu/transport/theme...nger-rights_en

They providing clarification and stating E261 does not apply.

Most airlines are being fair but there are some travel agents who are blissfully ignoring customer calls and refusing to return cash received on paid for flights.

I think you might need to re-read it.....Commissioner for Transport Adina Vălean said: “In light of the mass cancellations and delays passengers and transport operators face due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission wants to provide legal certainty on how to apply EU passenger rights. In case of cancellations, the transport provider must reimburse or re-route the passengers.

Talked to a friend who works as an FA after leaving nursing 5 years ago, already told to take 3 months off. She has already been called by old colleague asking to return to nursing which she is seriously considering.

A big plus she said is next pay negotiation from Nursing bodies with Govt will be a "we want 10% or what ever", she doubts Govt will not be meeting their demand.

The ladies nephew is a Billy No Mates who stays indoors playing computer games since dropping out of Uni 2 years ago. She said he will be ok as is so cut off from the world and reality.

I imagine that airlines will be delighted if all the FAs who were previously nurses were to resign and return to nursing

At the same time, the guidelines clarify that the current circumstances are “extraordinary”, with the consequence that certain rights – such as compensation in case of flight cancellation less than two weeks from departure date – may not be invoked.

I did plus also what was added on right at the end, I yet know no airline that is not reimbursing passengers, many automatically doing it without passengers getting in touch, some like Wizzair offer 120% of fare as future credit.

Many airlines are just getting passengers home like Ryanair who got Spanish Govt to allow flights back to Ireland and opened up airspace.

EU is going after those if there are any acting unreasonable and also being clear that EU261 is not applicable.

If you are told you have unpaid leave minimum for 3 months, likely longer and have to support yourself does it really matter ?

Many FA's wil not be back working in the next 6 months, if at all.

Aer Lingus cuts staff pay by 50%.

https://www.independent.ie/business/...-39059279.html

easyJet must take the "brass neck" award. They are asking staff to take 3 months unpaid leave, to forgo free food on flights, and suffer a pay freeze.
Of course the three at the top will be making their own sacrifices too. Be fair to them! They will be taking a20% drop in salary for 3 months. Heroic! This will put the CEO on a mere £47K per month, rather than his usual £58K.
See, everyone needs to make sacrifices!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51962981

You wait till us at BA get the news tomorrow about our fate

Friday
5 o’clock

At the same time they are going ahead with a £170m dividend payout...oh and they are going to ask UK plc for a handout too...got some front, I'll give them that.

They could pay each of their ~14,000 employees 12k with that dividend money, or pay them half that over the next 3 months (still 2k per month) and still have 85m to award the selfish suits in the city... In a time of crisis, the attitude and greed of top management towards the employees who enable easyJet (and a number of other big name companies for that matter) to thrive is nothing short of disgusting.

Actually, because the dividend was approved at the AGM some time ago, they are legally bound to pay it. But once the airline is reduced to the minimal level needed for any continuing services, and any government support to the industry is agreed, there seems little for them to do until there is light at the end of the tunnel, when they need to plan the restart. The present situation is not the fault of either the bosses or the staff. They should share the pain equally.

Thanks for the additional insight. I guess my concern lies mainly with the highlighted part of your post now - temporary 20% pay cut for the top management and next to no pay at all for a while for those on the ground!

When and if this is all over the business world and individuals will be in a much poorer financial position. For individuals this means that discretionary spending for holidays and mini breaks will be greatly reduced. There will be no quick fix. Recovery to 2019 levels of flights could be 10 years away.

Do you always wake up that grumpy? :{

Completely agree with this - it is disgusting

I'm sure in these extraordinary times, a way could be found round this?

I think the only way a dividend approved by shareholders at an AGM could be cancelled is if the directors decide the company is no longer a going concern. Or in ordinary language, Easyjet bosses have to believe the company has a significant chance of bankruptcy - they may believe it, but to state it publicly would be a self-imposed death sentence

Shareholders are not all rich and a lot probably just as well off as the average staff member. A simple retired pensioner could have a stake in the business and actually use dividends to live off. Sad truth is, these days you don't get rich through employment. It comes through investment. Someone played by the rules and deserves the outcome. To take it away would be theft. Don't like it, change the rules of the society in which we operate.

This.

I wonder how many pension funds are going to see dividends this time round for easy? The picture is much bigger than just Stelios. On the face of course it doesn't look great, but the board and the Government will know all too well the wider damages that could be caused by blocking that dividend payout.

LTNman.....Your doom-mongering is getting tedious (however well intentioned)