Obviously demand for air travel has decreased greatly recently, as fears surrounding coronavirus have continued to grow.
Several days ago Southwest CEO Gary Kelly said that the drop-off in domestic travel demand “has a 9/11 like feel.” Southwest would know, because they’re 97% domestic.
We’ve seen airlines across the world introduce travel waivers and cut capacity significantly. Just how bad are things for other airlines in the domestic market, though?
Today United Airlines President Scott Kirby has revealed just how much demand has dropped in recent days:
- Domestically net bookings are down about 70% (which is calculated as new bookings minus canceled bookings)
- Domestically gross bookings are down about 25% (new bookings)
- Net bookings to Asia and Europe are down 100% (again, calculated as new bookings minus canceled bookings)
- Revenue is expecting to be down 70% in April, and also down significantly in subsequent months
That’s massive, and frankly even worse than I was expecting the situation to be.
My goodness, one has to wonder for how long airlines will be able to weather this. If this is how much demand is down in the US, I can only imagine how much demand is down in some other parts of the world.
While I suspect most US airlines will be able to weather this in one way or another, one has to wonder how much longer some of the more financially “fragile” airlines will remain in business with the current situation…
What do you make of the 70% drop in net domestic bookings domestically for United — is that higher or lower than what you were expecting?
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