Aer Lingus will on Friday give unions more details of planned cuts that some speculate could lead to 900 job losses. The carrier’s owner, International Consolidated Airlines Group’s businesses lost E535m in the first three months of the year, compared with a profit of E135m in the opening quarter of 2019. Aer Lingus management, led by CE Sean Doyle, is expected to give further details of proposed job cuts to representatives of unions Siptu, Fórsa, Connect and Unite in talks on Friday. Last week it emerged that the Irish airline expected its business to shrink 20% in 2021 following the Covid-19 crisis, so was seeking to cut its workforce in line with this. The news sparked speculation that Aer Lingus wanted 900 redundancies from its total workforce of 4,500. However, unions said the company did not give a number when it raised the issue.<br/>
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No one expected airlines to report good news for Q1. But Spirit's and JetBlue's losses were even worse than analysts predicted. Spirit followed other airlines in announcing it will offer 12m shares at an as-yet-undetermined price, and $150m in debt to raise cash to weather the crisis. It also has reached an agreement to increase a credit line by $30m by May 18. That news, combined with Spirit's adjusted loss of $58.9m, sent Spirit shares down 13% in early trading Thursday. Meanwhile, JetBlue lost an adjusted $116m excluding special items, compared to a $51m profit a year earlier. But JetBlue shares actually gained 5% following comments from executives that they believe the worst of the drop in travel is behind it. "We believe that we've reached the bottom in terms of demand around mid-April," JetBlue President Joanna Geraghty said, though she cautioned it's not a dramatic turnaround. "We expect to have a better sense of the third and fourth quarter of 2020 by early summer. We envision this environment of very limited demand will continue into at least the short, if not medium term." JetBlue was one of the first US carriers to cut its domestic schedule in March in the face of falling demand for air travel. But the drop in traffic in March has been nothing like what has been experienced so far in the second quarter, when demand for air travel has been essentially zero<br/>
JetBlue sold loyalty points to Barclays for $150m, making the carrier among the first in the US to use the method to raise cash as the coronavirus pandemic all but extinguishes demand for travel. “It was a good opportunity for us to get a small amount of incremental liquidity at attractive terms,” CFO Stephen Priest said Thursday. Barclays, which issues JetBlue’s co-branded credit card, confirmed the sale. The deal adds a new dimension to fundraising efforts by the battered airline industry. JetBlue has raised more than $2b since mid-March and received $936m from the US Treasury Department to support payroll expenses. The airline is seeking to raise an additional $750m over “the next couple of months,” Priest said. Airlines disclose few financial details of their loyalty programs, including their primary source of revenue: selling miles to banks that then use them to reward credit card use by customers. JetBlue received $475m from such deals last year, Stifel analyst Joe DeNardi said in an April report. <br/>