American Airlines would be forced to discontinue service to additional US markets in the absence of new coronavirus relief from Washington, CEO Doug Parker said Thursday. The airline has already cut service to 13 cities through the month of November, Parker pointed out, shortly after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected the idea of a stand-alone aid package for airlines unless it was part of a broader stimulus measure. Parker said American and other major carriers are pushing back more flight cuts, holding out hope for extra government aid. “There will absolutely be discontinuation of service to small communities, and there will be much less service to larger communities” without more coronavirus relief, he stressed. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump halted broader relief talks, and then began pushing for smaller measures focused on airlines, small businesses and stimulus checks for individual Americans. On Thursday morning, before Pelosi’s comments, the president claimed “some very productive talks” had resumed among stimulus negotiators. The first round of government support during the pandemic came in March, and it prevented airlines from making job cuts and required them to maintain minimum levels of service through Sept. 30. “It gave us the funds to keep people employed that ... there wasn’t enough demand for airline service to keep them employed,” Parker said. “It allowed us to serve more markets than we would have otherwise.” Parker said American Airlines projects its revenue for Q3 to be down about 75% year over year, slightly better than the roughly 85% sales decline experienced in Q2. The company estimates a 65% drop in Q4, “so that’s gradual improvement but off an incredibly low base,” he said. “We can’t continue to wait. If forced to, of course, we will indeed discontinue service to a lot of markets and we will be much slower to rebound and help the country rebound from this pandemic,” Parker said. <br/>
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Stefan Pichler resigned as Royal Jordanian Airlines CEO at the end of September, the company said. Pichler, 63, joined the Amman-based company in 2017 and returned the airline to profitability by changing its pricing strategy and lowering operational costs. The airline’s load factor rose to 74.2% in 2019, a record high. The Middle-Eastern carrier has since been hammered by closures prompted by the coronavirus pandemic. It reported a loss of 67.4m dinars ($95m) in the first half of the year compared with a profit of 1.4m dinars a year earlier. Pichler resigned on Sept. 30 and plans to retire, the company said. Prior to joining Royal Jordanian, he led airlines including Air Berlin and Jazeera Airways, and held various senior roles at Virgin Australia. Royal Jordanian said it has started searching for a replacement. <br/>
BA retired the last of its huge Boeing 747 airplanes on Thursday when the final two planes still in service departed from London Heathrow -- a poignant event brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic. BA said that the jumbo jets, one dressed in "Negus" design and the other bearing Chatham Dockyard livery, took to the skies "one after the other" from Heathrow's 27R runway. One of the airplanes, G-CIVY, circled back over the runway before flying to St. Athan, Wales, to be retired, while the other, G-CIVB, will be kept at Kemble, England. In July, the British airline announced that it was grounding its fleet of 747s following the damaging impact that the Covid-19 pandemic has had on both the airline and aviation sector. Known as "Queen of the Skies" and popular among aviation fanatics, the Boeing airplane has fallen out of favor in recent years as airlines switch to more efficient smaller passenger jets. BA said it was already "slowly" phasing out the "fuel-hungry" aircraft in order to help meet a commitment to "net zero by 2050." But earlier this year, the company said that the planes had likely flown their last scheduled commercial service -- despite recently refreshing the interiors of the planes having expected them to remain in service for several years. "This is not how we wanted or expected to have to say goodbye to our incredible fleet of 747 aircraft. It is a heart-breaking decision to have to make," Alex Cruz, BA chairman and CEO, said in July following the announcement that the planes would be retired. "Today was an emotional milestone in the retirement of our 747 fleet as it was our last chance to see the Queen of the Skies depart from our home at Heathrow airport," Cruz said Thursday.<br/>