While IATA stopped short of issuing any fresh forecasts for the year in its latest media briefing, it left little doubt regarding the extent to which the coronavirus crisis will drive the industry’s unprecedented run of profits to an abrupt end. March 5, IATA outlined 2 potential scenarios for the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the airline industry, the worst of which suggested US$113b could be wiped off airline passenger revenues in 2020. That is based on projected passenger revenues of $581b in 2020, and total anticipated airline revenues of $872b. “Undoubtedly it’s too low,” IATA chief economist Brian Pearce said Tuesday, when asked whether the industry outlook had worsened. ”We can’t say at this stage by how much that is an under-estimate, but the situation is worse than we thought it would be,” he says. <br/>
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The airline industry “would be the number one” priority for federal assistance in the wake of drops in travel because Covid-19, president Donald Trump said Wednesday. “They go from having the best year they’ve ever had to having no passengers because of what we had to do to win this war,” Trump said at a briefing on the administration’s response to the virus. The Treasury Department will propose lending airlines US$50b in a coronavirus stimulus plan, according to a document obtained by Bloomberg News. Such a proposal would fall short of the aid being sought by the industry, which requested $29b in grants and another $29b in loans. <br/>Other travel industry groups, which have seen plunging revenues as people adhere to warnings about spreading the virus, are also seeking billions of dollars of govt help. <br/>
Airlines have their collective hand out for billions of dollars in emergency aid as the coronavirus crisis obliterates the travel sector, and now select Democrats see that as an opportunity to press the major carriers, as well as cruise ships, to be better champions of the environment in exchange for help. Wednesday, 8 Senate Democrats signed a letter saying that any aid to airlines (and they included cruise ships) should come with conditions requiring them to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions over time. “If we give the airline and cruise industries assistance without requiring them to be better environmental stewards, we would miss a major opportunity to combat climate change and ocean dumping,” said co-signer senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat of Rhode Island. <br/>
India is planning a rescue package worth as much as US$1.6b for the aviation sector, which has been battered after the coronavirus outbreak forced countries to close borders and brought air travel to a near-halt, govt sources told Reuters. The Finance Ministry is considering a proposal that includes temporary suspension of most taxes levied on the sector, including a deferment of aviation fuel tax, said the sources, who have direct knowledge of the matter. The rescue package, proposed by India's civil aviation ministry, is likely to be worth up to U$1.3b-$1.6b), the sources said. "Taxes could be deferred till the coronavirus spread is contained and the aviation sector can come back to its feet," one of the sources said. <br/>