Ryanair Holdings said Monday that it was cutting more Italian flights in response to the government lockdown, as well as a number of flights to other EU countries. The airline, which has already cut 25% of flights to the country, said it was also restricting flights to and from northern Italy. In addition, Ryanair is reducing flights to Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta and Romania. All cuts are with immediate effect. Last week, Ryanair, along with many other major airlines, cut flights to Italy in response to the growing coronavirus epidemic. On Sunday, the Italian government quarantined nearly 17 million people in the northern part of the country in a bid to contain the spread of the epidemic. Ryanair said on March 2 that flights were being reduced between March 17 and April 8 to northern Italy and other countries where it has already noticed reduced bookings.<br/>
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JetBlue Monday withdrew its Q1 and full-year earnings forecast and said it was considering voluntary time-off programs for employees, as the coronavirus outbreak wreaks havoc on the global travel industry. JetBlue said it is adjusting schedules between March and early May due to falling demand, and is evaluating further flight cancellations as the situation around the epidemic develops. The company also said it was delaying some hiring and increasing the frequency with which it cleans aircraft.<br/>
While no US airlines have requested a bailout to date, the head of Hawaiian Airline said Monday that it was difficult to predict what would happen in the weeks and months ahead for the industry as travellers cancel flights amid coronavirus uncertainty. Speaking to investors, CE Peter Ingram said that a sharp drop in travel demand was driven by fear around “a number of unknowns” on the virus and called on government authorities to provide “good, current and factual” information. Hawaiian Airlines does not have any immediate liquidity needs, Ingram said.<br/>
Hawaiian Airlines is struggling with a dramatic decline in business due to the global COVID-19 spread. The crisis has become so critical for airlines that the Honolulu-based carrier decided to cancel its planned investor day, scheduled for 9 March. Instead, CE Peter Ingram gave industry analysts an update on the airline’s anticipated decline in business as the global crisis continues to unfold. “The spread of the novel coronavirus and COVID-19 is now an international health emergency,” Ingram says. “This is very different from a weak economic situation where people want to travel but don’t have the means to travel. This is driven by the level of anxiety that has built around travel and anxiety in general of spread of disease. We are dealing with a crisis in consumer confidence around travel and the uncertainty that is being created from all this.” Earlier in the day the airline withdrew its revenue per available seat mile (RASM) expectations for Q1. The previous guidance had been for a decline of 4.5-7.5%. “The company is unable to provide an updated guidance range due to considerable uncertainty about the impact of COVID-19 on demand for the remainder of the quarter,” Hawaiian said.<br/>