The US Senate has drafted a bill that would provide US$58b in aid to help US airlines manage through the coronavirus pandemic, which has forced many to reduce schedules, ground aircraft and furlough staff. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act of 2020, released by the US Senate Thursday, offers $208b in collateralised loans and loan guarantees to US businesses, with $50b reserved for passenger air carriers and $8b for cargo carriers. In addition it suspends excise taxes on transportation and kerosene for commercial aviation until the end of the year. As written, the bill would not provide assistance in the form of direct grants or unsecured loans, as the airline industry has requested. <br/>
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US airlines could burn through US$40b in cash by year-end if passenger revenue plunges to nothing for the rest of 2020 because of the new coronavirus and operations are shut down, according to Vertical Research Partnership. “This is a dramatization, but isn’t far from the new reality as each capacity reduction far exceeds the one that preceded it,” Vertical Research analyst Darryl Genovesi said Thursday. His “no-longer-so-extreme” scenario also assumes that bookings dry up and carriers are forced to refund all advance ticket purchases. Genovesi expects that carriers focused on the domestic market, which so far have cut about 20% of available seats in the next few weeks will slash capacity more along the lines of 70%. Passenger revenue could hit zero by the end of this quarter. <br/>
The leading US airline trade group and dozens of other US aviation industry trade groups Thursday called for immediate grants, unsecured loans and limited tax measures to ensure the industry's ability to survive the spread of coronavirus. In a letter to treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and congressional leaders, A4A and the other groups urged the Trump administration and Congress to act as quickly as possible to address the debilitating impact of the pandemic and protect the 11m jobs associated with the industry. It said the downturn in demand for commercial air transportation and shipping related to the virus was vast, and the crisis did not appear to have an end in sight. <br/>
The US Department of State has issued a “Level 4” international travel advisory, upping the govt’s travel warning to the highest level and urging Americans not to travel internationally. The Level 4 advisory, which carries the “Do Not Travel” recommendation, comes in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the agency says. “In countries where commercial departure options remain available, US citizens who live in the Us should arrange for immediate return to the US, unless they are prepared to remain abroad for an indefinite period. US citizens who live abroad should avoid all international travel,” says the warning. ”If you choose to travel internationally, your travel plans may be severely disrupted, and you may be forced to remain outside of the US for an indefinite timeframe.” <br/>
Airlines want to defer payments to Europe’s air traffic controllers, worth about E500m a month, as they battle a deepening cash crisis from a virtual shutdown of international travel amid the coronavirus pandemic. Carriers are collectively pushing back on paying February’s charges that are due next month to Eurocontrol, according to people familiar with the situation. Eurocontrol co-ordinates national air traffic management agencies and is responsible for collecting route charges from carriers to fund air navigation facilities and services in the EU. A4E said it was asking govts in the region to defer the payment of air traffic control charges due as well as waiving aviation taxes at EU or national level to help the sector’s future recovery. <br/>
Airline passengers whose flights are cancelled as a result of the coronavirus outbreak will be able to choose between having the cost of their ticket reimbursed or rebooking on to a later flight under new EU guidelines, a move that has prompted “dismay” at IATA. The airline trade group had requested the option for carriers to offer rebooking or vouchers instead of cash refunds for flights cancelled because of the pandemic. IATA had also asked the EC to recognise that no compensation should be due in the event of Covid-19-related cancellations, and to limit the “extensive obligations” for airlines to provide care and assistance to affected passengers. The Commission announced Wednesday a series of guidelines on how to consistently apply its EU261 passenger rights legislation across the bloc during the coronavirus crisis. <br/>
The timeline for the implementation of ICAO’s global carbon offsetting scheme for commercial aviation is one of the myriad issues affected by the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus outbreak. The implementation of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) involves using airline CO2 emissions data from 2020, in combination with that from 2019, to create a baseline average on which future offsetting would be based. In any year from 2021 when international commercial aviation CO2 emissions covered by the scheme exceed the average baseline emissions of 2019 and 2020, this difference represents the sector’s offsetting requirements for that year. The use of 2 years’ data was meant to ensure unexpected disruption did not skew the figures. <br/>