Qantas cuts flights further as COVID-19 hits airlines

QANTAS AIRCRAFT AT TERMINAL THREE LAX

Like many airlines around the world, Qantas will further cut its number of flights in response to the coronavirus outbreak, which has stunted demand for air travel globally. The airline said on Friday it would reduce its frequency of flights to Japan in the coming weeks - the first time it has adjusted capacity on those routes since the health crisis began. But it's not just the Japan sector that has been cut. Qantas also cancelled dozens of other flights through to the end of March, including eight return Sydney-Hong Kong services and five return Melbourne-Auckland services. A fortnight ago Qantas warned COVID-19 would cost it up to $150 million and reduced its flying into Asia by 15 per cent, flights to New Zealand by 6 per cent and domestic capacity by 2 per cent. The world's peak airline industry body overnight said the coronavirus would cost carriers $US131 billion ($170 billion) in lost revenue this year - three times as much as it predicted two weeks ago. "In little over two months, the industry's prospects in much of the world has taken a dramatic turn for the worse," The rapid shift in fortune is "almost without precedent," he said. The effect of the coronavirus is hitting an industry that has already been roiled in the past year by the grounding of Boeing's 737 MAX plane worldwide. British regional carrier Flybe became the first big casualty of the slump in travel demand and went into liquidation last Thursday due to the crisis. Norwegian Air also scrapped its profit forecast for 2020, while US budget carrier Southwest predicted a $US200 million to $US300 million hit to its first-quarter operating revenues. Carriers have been urging airports around the world to relax the rules around managing airport slots, so they can cut back capacity during the health crisis without losing their rights to fly to these airports in the long term. But it's not just Qantas cutting back in Australia, Virgin Australia last month extended the end of its Sydney-Hong Kong service and expects network-wide capacity to fall 3 per cent in the second half of the year. Air New Zealand has cut its flying into Asia by 17 per cent, and by 3 per cent on the trans-Tasman. As of last week, overall capacity flying in and out of Australia was down 10 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier. Flights from China have slowed to a trickle in light of the Australian government's ban on non-residents travelling from the country. German airline Lufthansa is planning to slash half of its flights and is considering grounding its entire fleet of A380 superjumbos, as the fallout from the coronavirus continues to hit the global air travel industry. I also read Cathay has grounded half  its fleet due to low passenger numbers.

I think this year we could see a lot of airlines go under..