United Airlines Holdings will slash international flights by 85% in April, the most among major US carriers, as the coronavirus outbreak kills demand for air travel. The carrier will also reduce flights across the US and Canada by 42%, and is monitoring changes in local rules and govt restrictions before further adjusting its schedule, it said late Tuesday. The changes are the result of a continued drop in demand and virus-related restrictions, United said. The latest cuts are bigger than what United announced just 2 days back, and the carrier is also slashing salaries after withdrawing its 2020 profit forecast. Analysts warned that airlines are set to announce more reductions to flight schedules as the drop in demand is poised to be worse than after the terrorist attacks of Sept 11, 2001. <br/>
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SIA will operate at 50% capacity until end-April and is looking to shore up liquidity. “Given the growing scale of the border controls globally and its deepening impact on air travel, SIA expects to make further cuts to its capacity,” the carrier says. Without elaborating, it adds that it is “actively taking steps to build up our liquidity” and will “consult the unions once again as [the SIA Group] urgently takes steps to further cut costs”. CE Goh Choon Phong says: “We have lost a large amount of our traffic in a very short time, and it will not be viable for us to maintain our current network. Make no mistake – we expect the pace of this deterioration to accelerate. The SIA Group must be prepared for a prolonged period of difficulty.” <br/>
Air NZ could reduce its workforce of 12,500 by up to 30%, as it works through the challenges posed by the coronavirus outbreak CE Greg Foran says: ”Air NZ’ is well-placed to get through Covid-19. We’re a strong resilient business, we’ve got a good balance sheet...But these are unprecedented conditions, and so as we deal with significant change in volume that we’re seeing at the moment, we’ll make some appropriate measure to get the business to the right size.” He adds that the carrier is working with all its union partners to “come up with the right solution that could see us with an organisation that’s up to 30% smaller over the next period”. Measures include taking unpaid leave, part-time employment, voluntary redundancy, and if necessary, redundancies. <br/>
The shutdown in commercial aviation caused by the coronavirus pandemic is severely limiting air cargo capacity, making it harder to move vital supplies around the world, including medical equipment to fight the outbreak. As airlines across the world cancel thousands of flights and ground planes, supply chains that rely on air transport face capacity shortages and increased costs at a time when most businesses can least afford it. Lufthansa said Tuesday that it "will do everything in its power" to maintain supply chains and ensure that goods are supplied across the country. It described the effort as an "airlift for all of Germany," evoking the Cold War operation to keep West Berlin supplied. Nearly 40% of German imports by value were shipped by air in 2017, according to the country's statistics office. <br/>