American Airlines Group said Sunday it plans to secure $3.5b in new financing, to improve the airline’s liquidity as it grapples with travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus. The company plans to raise $1.5b by selling shares and convertible senior notes due 2025, the airline said. Additionally, the airline said it will offer $1.5b in senior secured notes and that it intends to enter into a new $500m term loan facility due 2024. The company expects to use the net proceeds from the stock and convertible notes offerings for general corporate purposes and to enhance its liquidity position, the airline added.<br/>
oneworld
Japan Airlines will give its front-line employees up to 150,000 yen ($1,400) in extra pay as a token of gratitude for maintaining flights despite the coronavirus pandemic. The company feels it needs to raise employee morale, given that some staff are putting themselves at risk of infection. However, the chairman and president will receive no bonuses this summer. Other high-level executives will see their bonuses slashed by 70%. Shareholder dividends will not be paid for the fiscal year ended March, with management now tasked to explain the lack of payouts and their performance, which has come under fire.<br/>
Cathay Pacific is preparing to cancel “many” of the passenger flights it has repurposed to carry only freight, the strongest signal yet that the short-term boom in the air cargo market is weakening. Air freight rates have fallen by half from their peak last month, according to TAC Index, the industry’s price-guide bible, as demand for personal protective equipment has eased, alternative transportation methods have been employed and global economies continue to slow. “Cargo has been tapering off, and as a result, there will be many cancellations of cargo-only passenger aircraft flights, as the commercial decisions are made closer to the time of the flight,” Hong Kong’s de facto flag carrier, which operates from the world’s busiest air cargo airport, told staff earlier this week. Cargo revenue has been Cathay’s primary source of income for at least three months, as the collapse in air travel has seen passenger revenue dry up. With the grounding of numerous passenger aircraft, which typically carry half the world’s cargo, air freight pricing surged on the shortfall in capacity. Among Asian airlines, who rank among the biggest cargo carriers globally, a mixed picture was emerging. Korean Air, the sixth-largest, said it anticipated a “change” in demand, but its capacity was still rising, while seventh-placed China Airlines told Reuters it was concerned about the outlook against a weak global economic environment. Cathay, meanwhile, planned to “remain agile in the deployment of our aircraft to ensure our available cargo capacity is aligned with market demand,” the airline said.<br/>
The consumer watchdog has savaged Qantas for not telling customers they were entitled to refunds on flights cancelled as a result of the coronavirus. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has received hundreds of complaints from passengers whose flights were suspended or cancelled because of travel restrictions but were given credit, not refunds. “From our perspective, from the outset, Qantas did not communicate clearly with customers about their rights and in a large number of cases, simply omitted they were entitled to a refund,” said the ACCC chair, Rod Sims, on Friday. “In some cases, the ACCC considers Qantas’ emails may have encouraged these customers to cancel bookings themselves in order to receive a credit when many would have been eligible for a refund.” Sims said a new email Qantas has sent to customers in recent days – to “remind” customers about their refund rights – came after weeks of pressure from the ACCC. But the watchdog said even that “is not particularly clear”. “... I think that customers can and should expect better from Qantas, particularly when many of those customers may be out of work or experiencing financial hardship,” Sims said. “If any customer in this situation is unhappy with receiving a credit, or no longer wants one due to continuing uncertainty about when flights will resume, we strongly encourage them to contact Qantas and seek a refund.” Qantas said it did not think its initial advice to customers was unclear.<br/>