US airlines burn through $10b a month as traffic plummets

US airlines are collectively burning more than $10b in cash a month and averaging fewer than two dozen passengers per domestic flight because of the coronavirus pandemic, industry trade group Airlines for America said in prepared testimony for a US Senate hearing Wednesday. Even after grounding more than 3,000 aircraft, or nearly 50% of the active US fleet, the group said its member carriers, which include the four largest US airlines, were averaging just 17 passengers per domestic flight and 29 passengers per international flight. "The US airline industry will emerge from this crisis a mere shadow of what it was just three short months ago," the group's CE, Nicholas Calio, will say, according to his prepared testimony. Net booked passengers have fallen by nearly 100% year-on-year, according to the testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee. The group warned that if air carriers were to refund all tickets, including those purchased as nonrefundable or those cancelled by a passenger instead of the carrier, "this will result in negative cash balances that will lead to bankruptcy."<br/>