Airlines face worsening coronavirus impact, European bosses warn

The worst is still to come for the airline industry in terms of economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak, European bosses warned Tuesday, but they predicted that travel demand could stabilise in the coming weeks. Coronavirus has hit travel demand, forcing airlines to cancel flights and cut costs, and ask governments and regulators for help, as they battle to get to grips with what they hope will be short-term, rather than long-term, disruption. The heads of Europe’s biggest carriers including Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary; Willie Walsh, boss of BA-owner IAG; and easyJet’s Johan Lundgren said at an annual industry conference the epidemic was upsetting growth. “We have seen a drop in demand when you look particularly in the northern part of Italy, but that has also spilled over to the other parts of the network,” easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren said. IAG’s Walsh also noted a “very significant fall-off in demand” in Italian markets in the past week. But he predicted demand would stabilise in coming weeks if bookings followed the pattern seen in Asia. “I think we will see air traffic recover in due course,” he said. Ryanair’s O’Leary agreed the next few weeks would be tough. He said he expected a “very deflated booking environment” for the next two to three weeks, but should the crisis stabilise, bookings would recover. “I think you will see a pretty rapid return to normal,” he said. Yet the bosses acknowledged it could get a lot worse before it gets better.<br/>