ANA Holdings forecast its biggest-ever operating loss of 505b yen ($4.8b) for the fiscal year through March 2021, the latest airline to face an existential threat to its business due to the pandemic. The Japanese carrier unveiled a restructuring plan that calls for: i) a newly branded low-cost carrier in addition to Peach, the budget airline already operated by ANA; ii) Y150b in cost reductions this year and Y250b the following fiscal period, by cutting procurement, office rents and other activities; iii) the temporary transfer of hundreds of employees to other companies; 100 by the end of this year, and 400 by spring; iv) Retiring or halting orders on a total of 33 aircraft, to bring the group’s fleet down to 276 planes; v) Y400b in subordinated loans to bolster finances. The outlook issued by ANA calls for a wider full-year loss than the Y376b analysts were projecting on average, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg. ANA also forecast Y740b in revenue for the fiscal year through March, compared with analysts’ average prediction for Y926b. The $838b global airline industry is set to see revenue slashed by half this year, with carriers cutting jobs and securing funding to ride out the crisis. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Teo said the cost management plan, especially the downsizing of the group’s fleet of aircraft, was a positive step. “This is the main driver that will help ANA save Y250bin fiscal 2021 alone based on their guidance,” Teo said. “I am less optimistic about their third brand and proposed platform business, as these could require investment and thus now may not be the best time to do these, although they could be good plans to have for the longer term.”<br/>
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Lufthansa expects a very slow demand recovery in the face of the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic and now hopes to reach roughly half of its pre-crisis capacity over the course of next year, a board member said. Q1 capacity is expected to be up to 25% of pre-crisis levels, unchanged from the current quarter and well short of the 50% previously envisaged by the end of this year, said Harry Hohmeister, who is responsible for the group’s Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss and Brussels airlines. “Maybe a recovery to 50% of the pre-crisis level could be possible next year, and maybe even to 60% with business trips coming back in autumn 2021,” Hohmeister said, emphasising that those hopes are based on the assumption that the pandemic can be tackled with vaccines and broad testing early next year. Reliable forecasts remain impossible for the time being, but advance bookings for private trips in June next year are close to pre-crisis levels and already above them on certain days in September. Like other major airlines, Lufthansa has implemented significant cuts to its schedules, fleets and staff in the wake of the pandemic and is surviving on a E9b government bailout. About 350 of its 760 own aircraft are currently in use with every second seat occupied on average, Hohmeister said. However, 125 planes are set to be grounded again because of the pandemic’s second wave. Business customers, traditionally the carrier’s cash cow, remain a rarity but are returning on the carrier’s China routes. “The business travel volume will remain below (the pre-crisis level) in the long term, but I do not see that we will lose 50% of these customers.”<br/>
Turkish Airlines has undertaken a restructuring of its fleet plans, agreeing with Airbus to reschedule a number of deliveries. The carrier adds that it has “adapted the overall outstanding orders”, taking into account operational and financial positions, to ensure a “solid basis” for the airline’s future. Turkish Airlines has not detailed the extent of the changes but says it has reviewed its fleet plan in light of the crisis affecting the air transport industry. Over the first nine months of the year the airline’s passenger numbers have fallen by 62% to 21.6m, split almost equally between international and domestic. The airline has yet to disclose Q3 financial results, but it turned in an TL2.8b ($342m) operating loss, and a TL4.2b net loss, for the first six months of this year.<br/>