JetBlue on Tuesday said it swung to a loss in Q2 and forecast that revenue will fall by about 80% in Q3 as the coronavirus pandemic promises a choppy recovery in travel demand. The New York-based airline carried just 616,000 passengers in the three months ended June 30, down more than 94% from the 11 million who flew JetBlue in the same period last year. Revenue plunged about 90% to $215m from more than $2.1b in Q2 2019. JetBlue is the latest airline to detail financial losses stemming from the coronavirus crisis, which kept millions of would-be travelers at home. Executives are warning that while demand bottomed out in the spring, a choppy recovery is ahead because of a surge in virus cases and new travel restrictions. JetBlue, like its competitors, slashed flights in an effort to cut costs as demand fell. JetBlue’s third-quarter capacity will be down “at least” 45% compared with last year, the company said in an earnings call presentation. Cash burn in Q2 averaged $9.5m a day and will likely average between $7-$9m a day in the current quarter. JetBlue posted a net loss of $320m for the three months ended June 30, down from net income of $179m a year earlier. <br/>
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Spirit Airlines is preparing to inform unions on Friday that 20-30% of workers may be furloughed in October, an internal memo shows, becoming the first low-cost US carrier to detail potential job cuts due to the coronavirus pandemic. Workers at risk of being furloughed include pilots and flight attendants, according to the memo seen by Reuters. Spirit Airlines confirmed the memo was sent to employees on Tuesday but said it has no further comment. "It's now clear that the demand increase we saw in June was an outlier, and the downward trend will continue," CEO Ted Christie says in the memo. The airline's expected daily cash burn of more than US$100m each month, over the next several months, "is not sustainable," he added. On a conference call last week, Christie said the company was still looking at ways to mitigate the need for involuntary action after Sept. 30. "I think we're still reading the game film, to be honest, because the summer has been up and down both sides, and we want to make sure that we digest all the information before we make a call," Christie told investors after posting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.<br/>
South African carrier Comair’s rescue practitioners have disclosed that a potential deal with an interested consortium has fallen through, but are pushing back publication of a business plan to provide time to consider other approaches. Publication of the business plan had been due on 28 July after an expression of interest was received from a consortium on 21 June. But the interest has not translated into a binding offer because, the practitioners state, it ran into approval problems with a funding committee. “[The offer] therefore could not be taken forward,” they add. “[We] understand, to date, that this has not changed.” But the practitioners point out that two other consortia have each signed non-binding offers, both of which contain “several material conditions” which must be satisfied before being made binding. “At this time, the ability for [Comair] and the practitioners to fulfil the conditions in these offers, and the willingness of the company’s financiers to participate with the [consortia], remain unknown,” they add. Understanding whether the parties will be able to meet the necessary conditions – and whether either offer would be able to resolve the airline’s financial distress – will take time to evaluate.<br/>