U.S. airlines are collectively burning more than $10 billion in cash a month and averaging fewer than two dozen passengers per domestic flight because of the coronavirus pandemic, industry trade group Airlines for America said in prepared testimony for today's. Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing. Even after grounding more than 3,000 aircraft, or nearly 50% of the active U.S. fleet, the group said its member carriers, which include the four largest U.S. airlines, were averaging just 17 passengers per domestic flight and 29 passengers per international flight. “The U.S. airline industry will emerge from this crisis a mere shadow of what it was just three short months ago,” the group’s chief executive, Nicholas Calio, will say, according to his prepared testimony. Net booked passengers have fallen by nearly 100% year-on-year, according to the testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee. The group warned that if air carriers were to refund all tickets, including those purchased as nonrefundable or those canceled by a passenger instead of the carrier, “this will result in negative cash balances that will lead to bankruptcy.” Read more.
For more information on the hearing titled "The State of the Aviation Industry: Examining the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic," scheduled for today at 2:30 p.m., please click here.
The head of the Aerospace Industries Association will ask the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee at its hearing today to consider providing temporary assistance to the aerospace manufacturing sector and warned that more jobs are in jeopardy due to the coronavirus pandemic, Reuters reported. Eric Fanning, the group’s chief executive, will urge Congress at a hearing to consider “temporary and targeted assistance for the ailing aviation manufacturing sector…. There is strong support in our industry for a private-public partnership to protect jobs and keep at-risk employees on the payroll through the pandemic.” His written testimony also raised concerns that many companies may not be eligible for a $17 billion U.S. Treasury Department national security related loan program and suggested revisions to the lending criteria. Major aviation manufacturers have already announced thousands of layoffs amid a steep air travel falloff. Read more.
