Virgin Australia has withdrawn its 2020 earnings guidance and announced steep cutbacks following a collapse in travel demand due to the spread of coronavirus. The airline said Friday it would reduce flight capacity and trim costs as it seeks relief on government charges. The company has sought to reassure investors about its financial position and said it was not in danger of breaching any debt covenants, saying it maintains the support of its largest shareholders, which include China’s HNA Group, Singapore Airlines, Virgin Group and Etihad Airways. “The group currently has a cash position in excess of $1 billion,” said Paul Scurrah, Virgin Australia CE. “We have no significant debt maturities until October 2021. I continue to get very strong board support for what we are doing.” Scurrah said the company would reduce flight capacity by 7.1% in the first half of the year, ask staff to take unpaid leave and slash marketing spending. Virgin Australia and other parts of the industry are in talks with the government about seeking relief on tens of millions of dollars of charges such as fuel excise levies, he added. Passenger numbers in the first 10 days of March fell 18%, Scurrah said. Virgin Australia’s bonds have sold off in recent weeks on concerns over the business’s financial condition. “The coronavirus came at the worst possible time for the airline, which was already under pressure due to weak consumer sentiment, the impact of the drought and bushfires and increased leverage,” said Anthony Ip, a credit trading strategist at Citi.<br/>
unaligned
Virgin Australia passengers may have been exposed to coronavirus after the airline revealed a staff member who contracted the disease is a cabin crew member. The woman, whom the airline confirmed on Thursday as having the disease, is now in isolation. She recently had returned to Australia from overseas. Virgin has not revealed publicly which flight or flights she was on while potentially infectious. The company said on Friday it is following health protocols. “I can confirm we have a cabin crew member who has been diagnosed with coronavirus,” CE Paul Scurrah said. “She recently came back from overseas and was feeling unwell and decided to self-report. We’ve followed the protocols the local health authorities have asked us to follow. That includes contacting any passengers who may have been on the plane.” He said the airline’s response also included “cleaning procedures we are required to do” on the plane. Scurrah would not confirm reports the patient was on a flight from the Gold Coast to Sydney. Nor would he say whether actor Tom Hanks, who is in a Gold Coast hospital with coronavirus, was on the flight.<br/>
JetBlue Airways CE Robin Hayes is taking a temporary salary cut of 20%, the company said Thursday, the latest airline executive to reduce or forgo base pay in an effort to rein in costs amid the spreading coronavirus. Other JetBlue leaders at the officer level will also be taking temporary salary reductions of various amounts, a spokesman for the airline said.<br/>
Norwegian Air will scrap another 4,000 flights and temporarily lay off up to half of its employees due to the coronavirus outbreak, the company said on Thursday. On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump ordered sweeping restrictions on travel from Europe for the next 30 days in a bid to halt the spread of the virus. The US restrictions are a particularly severe blow for Norwegian Air, a pioneer in transatlantic budget travel and the largest foreign airline serving the New York region and several other US cities. Around 40% of its long-haul fleet will be grounded until the end of May, the company said. Flights to the United States from Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Madrid, Athens and Oslo will be cancelled, although routes from London's Gatwick Airport will continue as normal as Britain is not affected by the American restrictions. Up to a quarter of short-haul flights have also been axed, the carrier added. The company said earlier this week it would cut around 3,000 flights between mid-March and mid-June.<br/>
A Dutch trainee driving instructor, who caused “pandemonium” on an Aer Lingus flight to Dublin when he made a hoax coronavirus claim, has been given a two-month prison sentence. Former boat captain and ski instructor, Job van den Broek, 30, pleaded guilty on Thursday to an air-rage charge after he had delayed Wednesday’s flight EI 605 from Amsterdam because he would not end a phone call. He was flying to Ireland to get a connecting flight to Los Angeles to propose to his girlfriend, Judge Conal Gibbons heard at Dublin District Court. Sentencing, he said Van den Broek thought there were special rules for him and he told a fiction to the flight attendant that his mother had the coronavirus. The accused buried his head in his hands as the sentence was handed down. However, the business graduate was granted appeal bail, which he took up soon after the hearing.<br/>