BA owner books loss as pandemic stalls travel
The parent company of British Airways reeled to a loss of E3.8b in the first six months of the year as travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic ate into the bottom line. By way of comparison, IAG reported E806m in profit in the same period a year ago. Passenger traffic dropped by 98.4% in the second quarter amid government travel restrictions. CE Willie Walsh predicted that passenger levels wouldn’t return to pre-virus levels until 2023, and that it is “restructuring its cost base to reduce each airline’s size.” Walsh says the scale of the challenge eclipses the downturn faced by the industry after the Sept.11, 2001 attacks. “Anyone who believes that this is just a temporary downturn and therefore can be fixed with temporary measures, I’m afraid seriously misjudges what the industry is going through,'' he said.<br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2020-08-03/oneworld/ba-owner-books-loss-as-pandemic-stalls-travel
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BA owner books loss as pandemic stalls travel
The parent company of British Airways reeled to a loss of E3.8b in the first six months of the year as travel restrictions from the COVID-19 pandemic ate into the bottom line. By way of comparison, IAG reported E806m in profit in the same period a year ago. Passenger traffic dropped by 98.4% in the second quarter amid government travel restrictions. CE Willie Walsh predicted that passenger levels wouldn’t return to pre-virus levels until 2023, and that it is “restructuring its cost base to reduce each airline’s size.” Walsh says the scale of the challenge eclipses the downturn faced by the industry after the Sept.11, 2001 attacks. “Anyone who believes that this is just a temporary downturn and therefore can be fixed with temporary measures, I’m afraid seriously misjudges what the industry is going through,'' he said.<br/>
