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March proved to be yet another month of weak traffic figures for Cathay Pacific, which states that it is “impossible to predict” when passenger demand will recover from the coronavirus crisis. Commenting on its traffic results for March, Cathay adds that it is not seeing any improvement so far in passenger bookings and anticipates carrying less than 1,000 passengers a day in April. This is significantly lower than the 100,000 passengers it used to carry daily. For the month of March, Cathay and Cathay Dragon carried just over 311,000 passengers, a 90% decrease year-on-year. RPKs dropped 84.3%, while ASKs fell 73.2%, both led by deep cuts to mainland China and Northeast Asia. Overall passenger load factor for the month tumbled 34.6 percentage points to 49.3%. <br/>

Royal Jordanian Airline has enough cash to survive until the end of June and plans to ask the govt for tax breaks, as lockdowns caused by the coronavirus pandemic continue to halt airline operations around the globe. “I don’t think it’s time to talk about losses, but to talk about cash preservation to survive,” CE Stefan Pichler said. “We can last for a couple of months.” Royal Jordanian doesn’t plan to ask the govt for cash, Pichler said, adding that the airline is seeking tax breaks and payment deferrals. Airlines have been hit with an unprecedented near-total shutdown of travel as the coronavirus crisis sweeps across continents and govts close borders and order populations to stay at home. About 70% of global carrier capacity is idled. <br/>