Lufthansa’s CE told the airline’s staff that it had significantly increased liquidity from banks in recent days and was discussing industry concessions with the German government and the EU, as the global aviation industry navigates a sudden drop in bookings amid the spread of the coronavirus. The carrier has so far taken some of the most radical cost-cutting measures among US and European airlines, as the extent of the damage to the global travel industry has become clearer in recent weeks. Lufthansa said earlier Friday that it is in the process of assessing cuts to as much as 50% of its capacity. In a separate video message released Friday to staff, CE Carsten Spohr told employees that the situation has “dramatically worsened” since the airline’s last update a week before. The airline saw almost as many cancellations as new bookings on Thursday, he said. “The impact on our booking situation is immense,” Spohr said. “After initially only affecting Asia, Italy and our home markets, the crisis has also reached our most important intercontinental market in the meantime, the US. The drama of this development becomes clear when you consider that in normal times we fly to the US as often per day as we fly to China per week.”<br/>
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Lufthansa is looking into government support amid the “immense” fallout from the coronavirus, which could burden travel demand for months. To avoid layoffs after slashing capacity by as much as 50%, the airline is examining the implementation of so-called short-time work, the company said Sunday. The program, known as “Kurzarbeit” in German, involves the government offsetting wages lost when companies are forced to temporarily halt work. With some countries restricting flights from Germany, which has more than 800 cases, “the impact on our booking situation is immense,” CEO Carsten Spohr said in an internal memo. “We must assume that it may take months before we will see first signs of stability,” he said in the message recorded on Friday. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition is meeting Sunday evening in Berlin to map out a strategy to mitigate the damage from the epidemic on Europe’s largest economy. Looser rules for Kurzarbeit, which would make it easier for companies to apply and could increase payouts, are on the agenda. Economy Minister Peter Altmaier also proposed expanding government loans and guarantees and implementing additional measures if demand and supply disruptions intensify because of the global epidemic. The government is also considering accelerating a planned tax cut.<br/>
Air New Zealand's CE Greg Foran has offered to slash his base pay, as the airline moves to cope with falling demand as a result of the coronavirus. The airline announced on Monday that it was suspending its full-year profit forecast because of uncertainty over how long bookings might be reduced because of Covid-19. Foran, a New Zealander, was head of the US operations of retailer Walmart, leaving a US$13m annual salary to take up his role at Air New Zealand last month. He has offered to slash his $1.65m base pay by $250,000, a 15% pay cut, and the airline's executive team will extend a freeze on their salaries that has been in place since May 2019. Other measures the airline is taking include offering operational staff the chance to take unpaid leave, and a hiring freeze on non-critical roles. Foran said it was a significant event and different from challenges Air New Zealand had faced in the past, such as Sars or the global financial crisis. "This is affecting every part of the world... this is different but it doesn't mean we are not equipped to deal with it." He said Air New Zealand continued to make capacity changes but was not flying empty planes to retain airport slots, as it has been reported other airlines around the world are doing. The airport was offering flight discounts where it needed to, to stimulate demand. <br/>
Air New Zealand’s new boss isn’t ruling out job losses as the airline grapples with the effects of coronavirus and the toll it has taken on the company’s operations both internationally and at home. It has already made some immediate changes to further safeguard its future in the business, and its finances. The airline's CE, Greg Foran, has taken a pay cut, multiple flights have been axed and a hiring freeze is in place for non-critical roles. Foran said he couldn’t rule out redundancies. “I couldn’t rule out really too many actions at this point in time because we know what we know and we don’t know what we don’t know, and we need to ensure that this business is operating well and operating for the long term for New Zealand and New Zealanders,” said Foran. “It’s still a bit of an unknown as to where this goes," he added. "I’m unsure what this looks like in two weeks’ time, and that’s one of the reasons we did what we did today.” He said it is an emerging situation. "I couldn't rule out where this will go. The good thing is that we are resilient," he said. Foran and the airline's executives have been meeting daily to discuss the organisation's next steps. <br/>