European carriers face long haul through coronavirus crisis

If the relative financial success of the European airline industry had always seemed paradoxical given the glut of carrier failures over the past 3 winters, the coronavirus outbreak has to some extent been a leveller. “Not every airline is in the same boat – because there are differences [in business model],” observed IATA at the end of the March. “But even the solvent ones with good business models and strong balance sheets are in trouble in this kind of environment, so it is a leveller.” Europe is perhaps the clearest example of “the long tail” in the airline industry that Pearce has flagged in observing that much of the industry’s record profits in recent years has been in the hands of relatively few carriers. IATA’s latest projections are for European carriers to take the second largest hit in passenger revenues from the crisis. <br/>