For many of the world’s big airlines, the coronavirus pandemic is an existential threat. For Wizz Air, a European budget carrier, it is an opportunity. On a map behind his desk, founder and CE József Váradi has marked with red pins airports across the Continent that he is targeting for expansion. Since the pandemic started grounding flights, the Budapest-based airline has announced plans to open eight new bases, including in Milan and Dortmund, Germany, in the next eight weeks. That is expected to amount to 100 new routes. While the global aviation industry isn’t forecasting a return to 2019 demand until 2023, Váradi predicts his airline by then will be 50% bigger than it was before the crisis. In the US, low-cost Allegiant Travel, which mostly flies from smaller cities to sunny vacation destinations, said it could snap up jets at bargain prices as bigger rivals retrench and sell aircraft. “Our phone rings daily with deals,” Allegiant CEO Maurice Gallagher Jr. wrote in a letter to shareholders late last month. “I expect we will thrive in this changed environment.” In times of crisis, low-cost discount carriers often benefit, while the bigger, network carriers—with typically fatter organizations and higher costs—are forced to retrench. That is happening again, but on steroids, both because of the scale of today’s crisis and the unusual way demand for tickets is starting to return as lockdowns loosen.<br/>
general
US legacy airlines with lacklustre employee demand for early exit packages face large furloughs in the fall, signaling higher post-pandemic labour costs because union contracts require airlines to furlough in reverse order of seniority. This could create a competitive boost for budget carriers including Southwest, whose lower cost structure could help it win market share with cheaper fares, experts said. Labour will be the biggest single cost for airlines struggling to weather the coronavirus crisis that has crushed air travel demand. With no quick recovery in sight, United said Wednesday it was sending 36,000 furlough warnings to union workers after having received only 3,700 volunteers for early exit deals, with flight attendants the hardest hit. By contract, lower salaried union workers have to be furloughed first, creating a higher per-seat-mile labour cost and a larger cost gap against low-cost carriers. "And I imagine ticket prices will flow more or less in line with that," said Diamond Hill Capital Management analyst Blake Haxton. Low-cost carriers like Southwest have another advantage: their networks are more focused on domestic leisure travel, where demand is seen recovering first. Legacy carriers, on the other hand, generate more profit from business travel, which remains anemic. "It's a perfect storm for the legacy carriers," Haxton said.<br/>
On a June 30 flight on American Airlines from Dallas to Newark, Joy Gonzalez, an aviation engineer based in Seattle, found herself seated at a window with two older passengers beside her in the middle and aisle seats. In order to gain more social distance, she and the aisle passenger both moved to seats behind them where two rows were empty. But before takeoff, a flight attendant ordered them back to their assigned seats, telling them they had not paid for those exit row seats, which are more expensive. A second flight attendant listened to Gonzalez’s request, consulted with the other attendants and gave her two options: Take your assigned seat or return to the gate and pay for the exit row. As the flight was on the verge of departing, she sat down. “The irony of then hearing on the public address system, ‘Your health and safety is our top priority,’” said Gonzalez, who posted photos of the full and empty rows on Instagram. “Behind me, seats went empty and wasted while I was squished and touching someone.” As air travel builds, freeing up space is plainly at odds with the airlines’ profit motive, and passengers are finding they may be confined to a cramped seat if they don’t pay for a premium one, though American denies this is their policy. Ross Feinstein, a spokesman for the airline, wrote in an email that the restriction “appears to be in error, as we are permitting customers to move within the main cabin, including Main Cabin Extra seats,” which include exit rows. Since April, American Airlines has capped capacity at 85%. As of July 1, according to new guidelines, it began filling its planes. Story has more.<br/>
Criminal charges have been dropped against a Black woman who was struck in the face after yelling at a police officer at Miami International Airport. The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office announced Wednesday that there was insufficient evidence to prove the charges of battery on a police officer and disorderly conduct against the 21-year-old woman based on the body camera footage of responding officers. The confrontation began July 1 after the woman wasn't allowed to board a flight to Chicago because she arrived late, according to a memo from prosecutors. It said the woman became agitated while speaking with an airline employee, who called police for help. Bodycam video shows the woman, who was not wearing a face mask, become irate, saying, “You acting like you white when you really Black. ... What you want to do?” She approaches the officer, and puts her face right next to his, the video shows. The officer then punches her in the face. A police report states that the woman struck the officer on the chin with her face before he hit her.<br/>
Airlines have done away with their $200 change fees, giving passengers the flexibility they've long desired — at a time when few people are travelling. None of the major US airlines have signalled they will abandon change fees altogether. But as the pandemic continues to spread, they have repeatedly delayed their deadlines for reimplementing the fees. Delta and American, for example, recently extended their no-change-fee policy through September, and United pushed its deadline to July 31. US carriers made more than $3b from change fees in 2019 alone, roughly 2% of major carriers' overall revenue.<br/>Passengers shouldn't expect those much-hated fees to disappear forever, several analysts said. But it's possible the pandemic will significantly delay their return and, perhaps, even push airlines to adopt more consumer-friendly fee policies, the analysts said. Helane Becker, a managing director and research analyst at Cowen, predicts change fees won't come back for many months, perhaps even years. Becker said she doesn't think traffic will return to pre-Covid levels for three to five years, and airlines will need to do everything they can to attract customers before then. That includes taking change fees off the table, Becker added.<br/>
There’s an occasional line at the Chick-fil-A counter, and an occasional line of airplanes waiting to take off, too. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport looks…sort of busy. And that’s enough to make DFW the busiest airport in the world. The sprawling Texas hub, with seven runways and five terminals, has more than 90% of its gates and half its restaurants in operation. DFW typically ranks behind Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare and Los Angeles in takeoffs and landings. But due to the instant transformation of the airline business, DFW finds itself at least temporarily on top, with long-lasting implications for travellers. For the past two decades, airlines have moved to more nonstop flights, bypassing big hubs in the middle of the country. Now the midcontinent hub is back. For years to come, many travellers will find they must connect rather than go nonstop.American Airlines, which makes its home at DFW, has been pushing connecting service more than its competitors, focusing mainly on DFW and Charlotte, N.C. American even announced it was dropping five routes to Asia from Los Angeles, making DFW its main trans-Pacific gateway. From a low of about 200 flights a day at DFW, American will hit 667 flights a day later this month. Last summer it flew more than 900 a day, and with larger airplanes. In May, DFW had 12,109 departing passenger flights, edging out Chengdu, China, by 86 flights for the title of busiest in the world, according to Cirium. In June, DFW widened its lead over Chengdu, Cirium says. Story has more.<br/>
Airlines will be offering affordable fares to New Zealand after a three-week booking freeze lifts to entice anxious travellers and recoup losses caused by the government directive, an aviation expert says. A surge in the number of Kiwis returning home to seek refuge from the worsening coronavirus pandemic has been putting New Zealand’s quarantine facilities under immense strain. To manage the flow of returning Kiwis and ensure quarantine facilities are not overwhelmed the Government ordered airlines to stop taking inbound international bookings for the next three weeks. The hope is by the end of that three weeks there will be enough new quarantine facilities and existing capacity freed up to accept new arrivals. However, the three-week time frame could be extended. Fewer than 50 passenger flights arrive in New Zealand per week, with just five carriers operating inbound international services: Air New Zealand, Emirates, Singapore Airlines, China Southern and China Eastern. All five confirmed they have stopped taking bookings for the next three weeks. Aviation consultant Irene King said airfares would be affordable after the three-week ban because airlines would be trying repair the commercial damage done by the booking freeze. “The only way passengers are going to travel is if the price is right, literally, because everything else is so uncertain,” King said.<br/>
Airbus deliveries rose 50% in June compared with May and reached their highest level since the coronavirus crisis spread to Europe in March, but the accelerating recovery failed to prevent first-half deliveries from sliding to a 16-year low. Figures released by the planemaker Wednesday underscored a collapse in aerospace industry fortunes since early this year, hours after Airbus workers facing job cuts staged their first strike in 12 years. Deliveries rose to 36 aircraft in June from 24 in May and a low of 14 in April. For the first half, deliveries fell by 49 per cent to 196 planes compared with 389 in the same period last year. Airbus has said it faces an average 40% drop in business over the next two years, forcing it to cut 15,000 jobs, or 11%, of its workforce. Unions oppose compulsory cuts. Facing a slump in demand, planemakers have been urging airlines to take planes that have already been built in return for agreement to defer others due at later dates. Some aircraft, however, are going straight into storage because travel demand is recovering slowly, experts say.<br/>