Florida reported that 260 out of 500 employees at Orlando International Airport (MCO) tested positive for the novel coronavirus. They did widespread testing at the airport as a result of a handful of cases there, followed up by contact tracing. The 52% positivity rate is huge, but – without more information about the specific roles involved – makes sense for indoor air conditioned environment.
We’ve had four days in the past week where the TSA reports more than half a million people clearing airport security checkpoints. That’s down from 2.3 to 2.7 million a year ago, but way up from 87,000 a day at bottom.
That’s mostly led by domestic leisure travel. Business travel, on the other hand, is a long way off – and likely won’t return to anything near normal this year. Here are 9 reasons why.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Just yesterday I reported that 3 of the world’s 5 largest airlines right now are in China as the country gets life back to normal and its aviation sector returns to something more like normal ahead of the rest of the world.
Now, though, flights to and from Beijing are being cancelled en masse on Wednesday – 1,255 flights, or 70% of the total scheduled for the day – as the government tries to contain a new COVID-19 outbreak.
There’s likely to be greater variance in what happens to fares than we’re used to, because airlines build their schedules guessing what demand patterns are going to look like and those may be more volatile than we’re used to – airline revenue management tools are more likely to “guess wrong” than in the past because they’re dealing with new situations they haven’t encountered before.
Hotels are a different story. While hotels can leave entire floors closed to save on cleaning and heating and air conditioning costs during periods of low demand, it’s harder to mothball capacity.
Last year at this time the four largest airlines in the world based on capacity were all in the U.S. American Airlines was the world’s largest airline, Delta second, followed by Southwest and then United.
The aviation industry has been among the hardest hit by COVID-19. That’s shaken up which airlines offer the most travel capacity in the world. Southwest is now the largest, and three Chinese airlines in the top 5.
The program’s $5 billion in new debt could create strong incentive for current cash flow versus long-term stewardship and profitability. Of course that is not new in the airline industry, at this time, or at United under Scott Kirby’s leadership in particular.
Airlines around the world “are suspending all or part of their alcoholic drinks service in response to Covid-19.” But how on earth is this a response to COVID-19?
Where airlines continue to offer drinks what’s the difference between offering tomato juice and offering that tomato juice with vodka? Does the virus spread less effectively through alcohol on longer flights where alcohol may still be offered, or in premium cabins?
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
United won’t get law enforcement involved or divert a flight. They won’t even threaten the ban to get compliance from the customer. Instead, the flight attendant can report the customer after the flight for an investigation.
If they’re not even going to mention the possibility of a ban when a customer refuses to wear a mask on board, they’re not actually serious about getting passengers to wear masks inflight.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
