Reduced to meeting online, airlines vow to keep fighting

For an industry that prides itself on bringing people together, it was a particular humiliation for airlines to have to resort to video conferencing for their annual industry meeting this week - and not one they are ready to repeat. Brought to their knees by the COVID-19 pandemic and struggling to convince governments to replace quarantines with testing, airlines turned to veteran IAG boss Willie Walsh to lead industry association IATA from next April. “My style will be different from what has gone before me,” said Walsh, as he thanked outgoing IATA chief Alexandre de Juniac. “I too am a businessman and I too understand how governments operate, but I’m even more unhappy and more critical of how they get things done (and) how they’ve failed to get things done.” Without a doubt, this will be Walsh’s biggest challenge yet. In three days of media briefings around the meeting, IATA further downgraded its financial outlook for the sector as a second wave of coronavirus cases in Europe and the United States points to more heavy losses and bankruptcies. That may test Walsh’s aversion to bailouts and subsidies. Little was said about further aid at the meeting, which ended on Wednesday, though de Juniac called days earlier for $80b in support on top of the $160b received.<br/>